Bracelet
by DisgaeaLord
Summary: Discover a new world where the elements take a toll on their users. Best part, I claim all rights to this, seeing how it's never been made before. This is just the only area I get reviews, so thats why I posted it. Enjoy :D
1. Chapter 1

**Claimer: That's right, I mean CLAIMER. Background story, every night recently, i keep having these werid dreams of anime charecters, including myself as well, but all is seen in a third person view. I thought at first it was from watching too much Bleach, it could be the reason though, but after the first one i kept getting diffrent dreams of more of this type of anime. Because of the fact i have Adhd, i can't stop thinking about it, and usually writing about it gets it off my mind. Possibility is that it could be some psycic thing. and YES, i have seen the future before in my sleep, not lying at all. Some people may think it's cool, but trust me, it actually gets really annoying reliving moments of you life after the 100th time doing so. When i grow up, i may actualy haev this as an anime. Eitherway, prepare to live my dreams as I see them through (Remember: This is Anime style!).**

**Prologue: **The town was in it's normal peaceful day. It was the same old thing, the same old time, and the same type of every persons life. Many people who live want to dream of going on an adventure, but not many people ever do. One person, however, a certain teenager, is about to have his life unfold, as he witnesses the truths to his secret past, chains that tie him to a never ending torment, and a life where the elements of the world, are all too real... (Sorry if it's too cheasy, but in the event I become famous for writing this, I wanna impress the people who might be reading this).

**Episode 1: Brace**

The streets were bumpy as the Zack rode in the car. As he looked out the window, he sighed, seeing how everything was the same as it always is, never changing, never ending, never exciting. Even as the red hair blew in his face, he yawned as it was nothing that was different to him. The only thing he did like in his life is his mother, caring for her son and nothing more. His mom looked at him as he leaned his arm against his cheek on chair's arms. She chuckled a little, catching Zack's attention. He chuckled too as he saw she kept giggling as she looked at her.

"What?" Zack said, wondering what was so funny.

"Just trying to put a smile on your face. You always seem so glum." His mother replied. Zack chuckled a little, leaning up against the seat.

"Just never get used to the boring life I always have."

"Oh come now. Many people can go on an adventure, they just never know where to search." His mom replied, looking back at her son with a smile.

"Oh please. Where am I suppose to find an adventure? I'm only ten years old and there's nothing else going on that's changing." His mother giggled a bit.

"Sure there is, it's right here." His mom said, touching his heart with her finger. When he looked down, his mom flicked his nose. They both laughed at this. Zack was grateful that his mother had tried cheering him up, even though it would go back to the same within a matter of minutes. Zack's eyes widened though as he looked out at the left side of the car. He couldn't tell if it was a hallucination, but to him, it looked like a giant boulder was coming right towards them. It crashed into the side of the car; the same side his mom was on.

He suddenly woke up, screaming a bit. As he looked around, he saw it was still dark. The woods he was in was silent aside from the noise of the owls and the crickets that echoed throughout the woods. Zack moaned as he leaned back into his sleeping bag, trying to fall back asleep. He stared at the stars for a few seconds, noticing no matter what shape they form when you connect the dots, it never changes. Leaning to the side, putting his hand flat on the bag, he laid his head down as he started to get sleepy again.

"Seven years huh?" He whispered to himself as he slowly fell asleep.

As the sun rose, the beam of light that appeared from it started to engulf the forest little by little. Zack winced a bit as the beam of light touched his face. He leaned up from his sleeping bag a bit, yawning as he rubbed his eyes. Sighing, he started to get out of his sleeping bag as he stretched. He rolled up the sleeping back as he put it in his camping-style back pack, and started walking again, deeper into the forest. About half an hour later, he suddenly noticed a camp site filled with other teenagers. When he looked around, he heard a sudden scream that caused him to moan. He fell to the ground as a green haired girl jumped on him.

"Zack!" Jenet yelled sighed as he gently nudged Jenet's face with his hand, having her get off. Jenet was one of Zack's old friends from school before he mysteriously disappeared, or at lest to everyone else he disappeared. He brushed himself off as he got up.

"Where have you been?" She asked. "I haven't seen you since..." Jenet stopped, not wanting to bring up any reminders of the accident seven years ago.

"I ran away Jenet, what else was I suppose to do?" Zack said, as he started walking into the woods again.

"Wait!" Jenet shouted, wanting him to stop. She stood there for a few seconds watching him leave, before running back to camp.

"I'm telling you dude your stomach can't explode!" Issac yelled. He had blonde hair and was pretty short, as well as needing to wear glasses.

"And I'm telling you yes you can! My cousin did it before and..." Before Hector could finish, they heard Jenet running towards them. They looked at her questionably as she breathed a bit heavily.

"What's up Jenet?" Issac asked, seeing her out of breath. Jenet breathed heavily for a few more seconds until she finally spoke.

"Zack! I just saw him!" Jenet stammered, causing the others to look shocked.

"You mean, Zack Zack? As in, the Zack from school a few years ago?!" Hector replied, unable to believe it.

"He went back into the woods. I think we can catch him if we run to him."

"We can't though! The counsulers punish us!" Issac replied, worriedly.

"We'll only be gone for a few seconds. They won't even notice." Jenet replied, taking off into the woods. Issac and Hector sighed as they ran after her.

Meanwhile, Zack just continued his way into the woods. He was a bit annoyed at the fact he met his friends again. It wasn't that he didn't like them or anything, it's just that he was irritated with the fact they wouldn't stop asking questions about how his life has been. He thought the leather tan jacket and black pants would disguise him, then again he's the only one he knows of that was born with red hair.

Zack snapped back to reality though as he heard screaming. He looked around at the empty forest, knowing that it wasn't one of his friends screaming. He jumped a bit as he heard the screaming again. This time he could tell where it was coming from. It was coming from a cave by the sound of it. He's been living in the outdoors for a long time, and knew how to survive and hear for noises. He dropped his pack as he started running towards the screaming, trying to find the source. He came to a stop as he came to a cave he never saw before. It was strange. It almost looked like a cave with teeth. But he got out of his trance-like state as he heard the screaming again. He ran into the cave as fast as he could, thinking perhaps someone was trapped or a cave collapsed. But when he entered, there was nothing. It was so strange to him. He looked around the walls and ceiling, but the only thing he found was a strange hole in a giant boulder. He found it weird, however, that it was a perfect size for his wrist. As he walked over, he heart began pounding like drums. Something in his heart told him to turn around, but his brain wouldn't let him. As he kneeled, he noticed something shinning inside of the hole. He looked at it curiously before he put his wrist in.

At the same time, Jenet, Issac, and Hector, right outside the cave. They have been looking for the last ten minutes or so, thinking about giving up. They then noticed his back pack Jenet picked it up, looking at it strangely.

"You think it's his?" Hector asked. Jenet looked at the side of the pack, noticing the hole on the side. She knew seven years ago before the incident, he ripped the side of his back pack, replacing it with a hole. She nodded as a reply.

"It's his alright. He still has the same hole as it did before." Jenet replied. The three of them looked at each other curiously before looking back inside the cave.

Zack's heart kept pounding as he reached in deeper and deeper. He couldn't tell if something was going to happen, or if something was going to cut his wrist off. He finally thought he reached the end, seeing how he couldn't reach in any deeper. But, when he tried to take his wrist out, he realized it was stuck. He grunted as he kept trying to pull it out of the hole, but to no success. He stared strangely as he noticed light was coming from the hole. He looked at it until his eyes widened at the sight of the light starting to grow. He tugged more and more as the light began to slowly envelope the hole room.

"Ahhh!" He screamed, as he was beginning to become engulfed by the light. His friends outside gasped as they saw a strange light coming from within the caves. They looked shocked as the light was enveloping the outside of the cave as well, including his friends.

Zack had his eyes closed, not wanting to see if there was a light at the end of a tunnle. When he opened his eyes though, he grew a shocked look as he saw he was floating out in space. All he could see were the tiny stars in space as he continued to float. He awed in the view of the tiny stars, noticing how much nicer they seem a bit closer. His eyes widened though as he saw the tiny stars moving. He thought of it strangely though, as they did. When he tried touching one, he gasped as it turned out they weren't far away, they were tiny little lights. They began to swirl around him in a strange circular motion. He looked around him, seeing hundred upon thousands of the tiny stars beginning to form around his wrists. He starred at his wrist, confused, as it started to form what seemed to be a shinning bracelet around his wrist. The bracelet began to shine everywhere as he was once again engulfed by the light.

He winced a bit as he slowly lifted his eyes. His vision was a bit dizzy at first, but as his vision began to clear, his eyes shot out as he realized the entire "cave" was gone, leaving what seemed to be a strange building that he was inside of. Cinderblock covered the room from ceiling, wall, and floor. As he leaned up, he grabbed his head, a little sore from what had just happened. But when he looked, he noticed a strange golden bracelet on his wrist. When he looked at the design, he noticed the roundness of the edges and in the center of the bracelet seemed to be a strangely shaped stone. He knew what it was, but the fact it was in the shape of it confused him. In the socket, it looked like a fire, a gem with pure flame and crimson. He grew an annoyed look on his face as he tried taking off the strange bracelet, but to no success.

"Grr, c'mon you stupid bracelet!" He whispered to himself. "Get off of me!" He tried using his feet to help, while standing, but as he did he lost balance, falling on his back again. He moaned as he realized he couldn't get the bracelet off. He decided for the time being to hide it underneath his black jacket's sleeves, until he could find a way to get it off. Quickly jumping back to his feet, he looked around the strange room. He was a bit confused, wondering if the strange hole transported him somewhere else...or maybe it was the bracelet? He thought to himself. He sighed as he didn't see any other hole in the wall, only a wooden door. He could see daylight coming through the creak of the bottom of the floor, indicating the outside.

He walked over to the door, opening it slowly. He gasped as he saw he was somewhere completely different. He didn't even know where he was. The outside, all he could see were wide open plains and a few boulders here and there, and he was nowhere near a forest. He could see the tall grass blowing from the wind, as he felt the breeze all around his neck. He looked back inside the place he was just in, wondering if it truly was a good idea to leave. Even though he knew he shouldn't, he believed best it was to leave the place, seeing how he won't get anything done just by waiting around.

With one deep breath, he took his first step outside. That's when he knew everything was literally going down hill from there. He started hating himself, seeing how the message "the first step of a thousand miles" was more like the first step to a thousand foot ditch. He started screaming as he fell. He tried to look at the bottom of wherever he was going to land, seeing how it was gonna kill him. His eyes went wide as he saw woods right before him.

"Oh great." he said to himself. "Either I get impaled by the damn trees or I fall to a horrible bloody death. He screamed as he saw he was getting closer to the ever-growing forest. He raised his hand out, hoping some miracle would occur and he would grab onto the branches, somewhat breaking his fall. As he thrusted through the trees, his miracle came, as he found one branch that caught him for a bit. He sighed in relief, seeing how he wasn't going to die. That didn't last long however, as he grew a nervous look, seeing the branch beginning to break.

"Oh sh..." Zack said to himself, before hearing the sound of the branch break off. He screamed again as he started to fall. Reluctantly though, he landed on the ground with only a few minor bruises and scratches from the trees. He moaned as he used his arm to lean up, coughing the dust that entered his mouth when he landed. As he looked around, brushing the dust off himself, he saw he was somewhere in thick woods, no daylight whatsoever except from the sky. His eyes widened though as he heard screaming again. When he turned around, trying to find the source of the screaming, he heard the screaming coming from his left. He smirked as he took off running through the forest, trying to find whoever it was that needed help.

As he ran through the woods, his hearing picked up as the screaming got louder and louder. By the sound of it, it seemed to be a girl, but as to how far away she was remained the question. Every tree in the forest looked the same, making getting lost around here pretty easy. Finally, after much pushing through bushes, and ditch jumping, he found a clearing with a few rocks.

As he looked around, he saw what appeared to be a girl with light blue hair, backed up into a rock. The girl seemed to be about his height and age, with blue silver eyes. She appeared to have a very large light brown coat on, the ones that go down to your knees, and sort of look like a rag. When he looked more closely though, he saw some giant guy looking down at her, getting closer. The guy seemed to be practically three feet taller than Zack and the girl, which was surprising to Zack because he was at least seven feet tall. He appeared to be bald with a black wrestlers' outfit on.

"Heh heh heh, I finally found you." The stranger said to the girl, smirking. The girl just continued to look at him in fear.

"P-P-Please!" She said, a bit beg fully. "I didn't do anything! Honest!" The girl said, with fear in her eyes. The guy just laughed at this.

"I don't care if you did anything. I just wanna have fun!" The stranger said, sticking his hand out, about to grab her. The girl screamed as he got closer. Just when he was about to grab her though, Zack came rushing through, grabbing the girl in both of his arms. The girl felt like everything around her was moving slowly, just as she stared back at the face of the one who saved her. The other guy grew an enraged expression, as he looked back to see Zack holding the girl.

"You!" He shouted. Dirt skirted off the ground as Zack came to a stop, a few yards away from the stranger. Zack glared back at the stranger before looking back at the girl curiously.

"You ok?" Zack asked. The girl just continued looking in his eyes for a few seconds before nodding a reply. Zack smiled a bit as he gently set the girl down on the ground, on her feet. The girl quickly looked back at the giant guy who tried to get her earliar, before hiding behind Zack, who glared back at the guy in anger.

"You there, little boy! If you know what's good for you you won't get involved!" He shouted. Zack took a battle stance, not prepared to let the guy get her so easily.

"First off, I'm not little. Second, what the hell do you want her for anyway?" Zack yelled. The guy just seemed to chuckle to himself.

"Very foolish boy." The man said, raising his arm in victory pose. Zack's eyes widened at what he saw: Whoever the strange man was, he had a bracelet much like Zack's, but it looked edgy then Zack's. The bracelet started to shine a brown light as the stranger punched into the ground.

"Look out!" The girl said sheepishly. Zack looked at her confused for a second before looking back at the guy. He gasped as he saw stalagmites starting to pop out of the ground, each in a line heading straight for the two of them. He quickly grabbed the girl, and jumped out of the way before a huge stalagmite impaled them both. Zack breathed a bit surprised, not only by the fact he narrowly dodged the incoming attack, but the fact that the stranger made stalagmites pop out of the ground.

"W-W-What the hell was that!?" Zack stammered, still in a state of shock. The guy and the girl gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean "what's that"? It was an elemental attack." The guy replied, punching the ground again. This time he saw vines and thorns heading straight for them on all sides. Knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of the way this time, he quickly picked up the girl, throwing her a few feet just as the vines grabbed onto his arms and legs. Zack screamed in pain as he could feel the vines pulling each of his arms and legs, as well as some of the thorns that pierced his skin.

"Ahhh!" He shouted. The guy just simply smirked as he squeezed his fist a little tighter, while simultaneously, the vines began to pull harder and tighten their grip. The girl looked in fear at the one who just saved her, before looking back at the guy. He quickly rushed up to him, pulling on his outfit in sadness.

"Please! I'll go with you! Just leave him alone!" She cried. the guy just gave her a stern look, which Zack noticed.

"Look, girl." He yelled, not knowing her name, but getting her attention. "I'll be fine, just get out of here!" Zack's eyes widened as he saw the guy's humongous hands smack against the girl, sending her flying a few feet and dragging her across the dirt a little bit.

"Shut up you dumb brat!" The guy yelled. As he looked back at Zack, he smirked as he could see anger and hatred in his eyes.

"Don't you dare touch her!" He shouted. Suddenly, everyone's expression went to surprised as they saw Zack's arm glowing. Zack noticed the stranger losing his grip from the surprisement, and reacting quickly, pulled the vines off just as he jumped out of the way before they could grow back. Zack pulled back his arm as he saw the small red jewel in his bracelet glowing, with red spiraling lights going everywhere.

"W-Where the hell did you get that thing?!" The guy stammered, shocked. The girl regained consciousness as her eyes widened, seeing Zack's bracelet.

"What the hell is going on?" Zack asked, not knowing what the bracelet was doing. Zack gasped as he saw his hand suddenly started to catch fire. "Ahh! Help! Get it off, get it off!" Zack yelled, swinging his arm up and down, hoping it would cool off his hands and get rid of the flames. The girl and the guy felt a sweat drop behind their head, surprised the stranger had no idea of what was going on. Zack blinked a bit for a few seconds before looking back at his bracelet, surprised that it wasn't hot at all.

"He can wield fire!" The girl said, surprised. Zack started for a bit, distracted by the bracelet and the hand that was on fire, but didn't hurt. The guy noticed this before grinning, thrusting his hand to the ground again. The girl's eyes went wide as she saw this, and then looked back at Zack. "Look out!" She warned; just as Zack looked back seeing the rows of vines heading his way. Zack was a bit frightened at a number of things, unable to know what the heck was going on. He closed his eyes as the vines grabbed his arms again, knowing that they would trying to pull him apart again. But to his surprise, the vines began to catch on fire as they grabbed his arm with the bracelet, withering away into dust after a few seconds. All three of them looked shocked as they saw this.

"How did I do that?" Zack asked, looking at both his hands. The guy grunted as grabbed the ground with both his hands, as his bracelet started shining again. As Zack and the girl watched, Zack's eyes went wide as he saw the stranger pull out a massive boulder out of the ground, and hurtled it right at him. Zack looked back at the bracelet again, not knowing what to do or to expect. He squeezed his fist, knowing that whatever he would have to do he would do it now. Now knowing what to expect, he thrusted his fist forward in a punching motion. To everyone's surprise, they saw a bolt of flame bursting out, and breaking through the boulder. The guy started to scream as he saw the bolt of flame heading right towards him, but not knowing what to do. There was a large explosion as the flame collided into him, with dust and debris scattering everywhere. Zack coughed a bit, surprised how much smoke that caused from the explosion. He grew a curious look though as he felt someone grabbed his wrist.

"C'mon!" The person yelled. From the sound of it, Zack could easily tell it was the girl who grabbed him, and not wanting to wait around for big tall and ugly to reappear, he ran with the girl. The other guy coughed as the smoke dissipated. As he looked around, he squeezed his fist in anger, seeing how they both got away.

"Damn it!" He shouted.

Zack had no idea what he had just done back there. He knew it couldn't be magic. Even if he did still believe in it at that age, which he didn't, magic doesn't make balls of fire burst from peoples hands, or give people incredible strength. Finally, for what seemed like five minutes, the girl stopped running. Both of them breathed heavily, a bit exhausted from the running they had just done. Zack looked back at the girl, noticing how she looked a lot closer.

"You...Ok?" Zack asked, breathing heavily in between. The girl just breathed a bit heavily as she nodded.

"Uh huh." She replied. With one long breath, Zack stretched as he finally stood straightly again. "Thank you for saving me back there." The girl replied, with a slight smile. Zack gave her a smile back as well.

"My name's Zack. What's yours?" He asked, curiously, stretching a hand out to shake hands. The girl just giggled a bit to herself before shaking his hand.

"My name's Brace."


	2. Chapter 2

**Episode 2: Em'bracing The Element**

As Brace splashed the lake's water on her face, she giggled as she felt how cool it was, being able to feel the tickle of the wind that touched her skin after. As she continued to wash herself, rubbing the water on her skin, Zack looked around in the strange place he was at. He knew a number of things as of now. One, he was in a completely diffrent world. As his mind came to the second thing he knew about this world, he looked at his bracelet. The second thing he knew was that these strange bracelets control elements, and at least to him, there were an endless amount of possible bracelets that could be around the world. He looked back as he saw Brace sigh in delight, drying herself off with the brown colored tunic she had on. Zack found it strange how a woman that looks like she lives a normal life, wore something that seemed like a hobo's clothing. But it didn't really matter to him, seeing how they had bracelets that control things, they could even have trees that talk to people. Zack laughed at the idea of this, which Brace looked curiously at.

"What's go funny?" She asked. Zack just shook his head as he tried to keep himself from laughing.

"Oh nothing, heh heh." He replied, walking clsoer to her.

"So, who are you anyway?" Brace asked.

"I already told you, the name's Zack." He replied.

"I mean like "who" who? Where did you come from?" Brace asked.

"I'm from Utah." The girl looked at him strangely, as if having no idea what he was talking about.

"What's a Utah? Is that some type of food?" Brace asked. Now it was Zack who was shooting strange looks.

"No...I'm from Utah, it's from the planet I'm from." Zack added. Brace just shook her head at this.

"I will never understand Earth's people." Brace replied, getting to her feet and brushing off the tunic she was wearing.

"So why was that guy after you?" Zack asked, causing Brace's eyes to go wide. Now Zack was even more curious than before.

"Uh...I don't know. Probably ransom or something." Brace replied, hesitantly. Zack raised an eyebrow at this.

"Uh huh...well I better get going." Zack said, walking away. Brace looked at him a bit shocked, not wanting to be left alone.

"W-Wait!" She shouted, running up to him. Zack looked back, a bit curiously.

"What's up?" Zack asked, who had his hand over his head as he walked.

"Where are you going?" Brace asked, as they kept walking.

"Well I mainly plan on finding some way to get out of this crazy world. And if anything else, I also plan on getting this stupid bracelet off." Zack added, glaring at the bracelet around his wrist.

"Don't ever call it a stupid bracelet!" Brace shouted, jumping right in front of him. Zack grew a surprised look at what she jut said, and the fact that she didn't seem like the type to get angry that much.

"Uhh...sorry? And why should I be sorry?" Zack asked, giving her a bit of an angrier look.

"Because that so called "stupid bracelet" saved your ass back there!" She shouted, causing Zack to go back to a surprised look. Even though he could never admit it, he knew she had a point. HE started remembering back to the first use of the bracelet, like how he used it to scorch the vines that tried to rip him apart, or when he used it to blast through the rock, and creating a big enough distraction they could both use to escape from the place. Either way though, he was mad at the fact the stupid bracelet is exactly what got him into the trouble to begin with. Actually, now that he really thought of it, it was Brace's screaming that got his attention. He snapped back into reality though at the sound of fingers clicking right in front of him.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?!" Brace stammered, seeing how she was being ignored. Zack grew an angrier expression as he grabbed Brace's hand, startling her.

"Would you knock it off?"

"I just said, I need your help!" She yelled, pulling her hand away.

"Look, I don't know about you, but I want off this damn planet. If you were smart you'd get running too before that giant orge or whoever comes back to kills us!" Zack shouted, pushing her away and cuasing her to fall on the ground. When she lifted her head, looking back at him, he could see she was a bit saddened at what he said. It's not that he didn't like her or anything, but it was the fact that she got him into this place to begin with, and the fact if anything, that giant could be coming back for him instead, seeing how he messed up his plans earliar.

Zack scuffed to himself as he started leaving. Brace raised her hand, wanting to say something. But her brain clicked as she started to get an idea. As Zack walked, he stopped as he heard sniffling behind him. When he turned around, he grew a nervous expression as he heard the girl crying, covering her face with her hands. He couldn't tell if it was really good acting, or if he really hurt her, seeing how tears were rolling down her hands from her face. As he got closer to see if it was for real, sure enough, the crying got louder as more tears ran down her eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry. Ok?" Zack said, not wanting to see a girl cry. Her crying just continued. Unknown to him, as Brace cried, she moved one of her fingers, trying to see if he was buying it.

"Just go away! I can find someone else to help me." She said, pushing him away as she started walking away, crying. Zack moaned at the fact she wouldn't wait to listen.

"Look, I'm sorry, ok? What else do you want from me?" Zack asked, getting irritated. Brace just continued to cry as she kept walking. Zack could see the tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping off the sides of her face. He started to get a fricken headache. He couldn't believe how much yelling at her hurt her feelings so much, but what angered him more was the fact she wouldn't tell him what the problem was. He sighed, irratably, knowing that the only way to get her to stop crying would be to help her. "Fine, I'll help you!" He complained. Brace looked back at him curiously.

"You...will?" She said, sniffling.

"Ye..." Zack started, before Brace ran up to hug him.

"Oh thank you thank you, I gaurenteed you won't regret this!" She said happily. Heh heh, sucker. She said in her mind, growing a mischevious look. Her face went back to curious as Zack grabbed her shoulders, pushing her off him a bit.

"What is it I need to do?" Zack asked, wanting to get straight down to buisness.

"I need you to help return me to my father." Brace said, causing Zack to look at her curiously.

"Really?"

"Really." Brace replied, with a smile. Zack was relieved deep down. He thought she was going to make him to some impossible thing, like slay a dragon or soemthing. Even though dragons don't exist, he didn't know what to expect in a world like this. He looked down at her hand as she held out her pinkey. "Promise me you'll do it?" Brace said, sweetly. Zack sighed as he grabbed her pinkey with his.

"I swear." Zack said, smiling a bit. "Besides, it'll give me a chance to explore this world."

"Good!" Brace said, with a cheerful smile. "Cause my hometown is all the way on the other side of this world." She said, as she started walking through the forest. Zack just froze at what she had just said, still with his pinkey finger sitcking out. D-Did she just say the other side of the world? He asked himself. He was moving so still, all that could be seen moving was his hair being blown from the soft wind. He was screaming on the inside of his head, saying how much of a dumbass he felt right now. He blinked though as he snapped back into consious, hearing Brace whistling back to him, waving.

"Hey, hurry up slow poke! If we get going we'll make it to the first town by nightfall." Brace said, with the same smile she had on earliar. Zack just hit himself in the face, thinking how stupid it was that he fell for such a trick, now that he realized it was all an act. He suddenly looked up though as he heard Brace screaming. When he looked, he saw her being tangled up by roots and vines that wrapped around her arms and legs, before pulling her deep into the forest.

"Brace!" He shouted, running after her. Zack shrugged off the branchs and bushes that scratched against his skin, not even caring what was happening. All he was focusing on was getting back to Brace, not able to think of what horrible thing the guy he met earliar could be doing to her. It took him awhile before he came into the same clearing they were in earliar.

When Zack looked, he grew a confused look, seeing how Brace was tied up, with the vines wrapped around here arms, legs, and mouth, keeping her from talking. He ran towards her, seeing even if it was a trap, he was going to make sure that he was ready for it, expecting anything. He grabbed on the vines, pulling them off of her mouth, then untieing her from the vines. Brace breathed heavily, finally able to breath again.

"Thanks..." She said, rubbing her neck from the lack of oxygen. "But's its a trap!" She yelled, worried.

"Don't worry, whatever type of trap it is, I'm ready for it." Zack said, sounding confident. He looked closely though as he saw Brace's eyes widen, knowing that something was behind him. He quickly turned around, trying to counter, but he was too slow, as the giant guy had his hand wrapped around Zack's head already. He squeezed tightly, as he brought Zack's face closer to his.

"Ha! Found you you little bastard! Any words before I kill you?" The giant guy shouted. Zack pulled for a few more seconds, even though it was no use, before replying.

"Yeah, get a breath mint!" He yelled. The giant man started to glare at Zack, as he threw to the side, sending him flying by five feet above the air. The guy then punched his fist into the ground as a stream of stalagmites started growing in a line, heading towards Zack. Brace looked in fear at what she was seeing.

"Zack!" She shouted, worried. She them screamed a bit as she saw the giant grab her by the neck.

"Shut up!" He yelld. Zack looked at each of the stalagmites carefully, seeing how they kept getting closer with increasing speed. To make matters worse, since he was being flung through the air, he couldn't touch the ground with his feet to dodge out of the way in time. He then remembered the bracelet her had on earliar, looking at it angry that it didn't do anything this time around.

"C'mon you stupid piece of metal, do something!" He shouted, flinging his arm. He looked at it, gasping a bit , as he saw flames bursting out of his hand, hitting the ground. The impact was so strong, it caused Zack to rise a bit, narrowly avoid the stalagmite that scratched agianst the back of his leg, cutting it a bit. He grunted to himself, as he held the pain in, not wanting to make a deal over it, or the blood that seemed to continuously drip out. Knowing he had a pretty good chance of hitting the tree, he flipped backwards in the air, with is feet landing on the tree. As soon as his feet were on the tree, he grabbed a near by branch to stay on. When he looked back, he glared at the guy who was holding Brace by her neck.

"Let go of her!" He shouted. The guy just smirked as he squeezed his hand a little, causing Brace to breath heavier.

"It would be so easy to snap her like a twig. Unfortunately, I need her alive, not dead...for the time being." The guy said, chuckling. As he squeezed a bit harder on Brace's neck, only slightly, Zack looked back at the bracelet around his wrist. He turned his wrist a bit, noticing how it shinned as he did, showing his own reflection. Zack knew that he was in a tough spot. If he attacked from the ground, he would get a stalagmite through his chest. If he tried to, even if he did dodge out of the way in time, he couldn't blast the guy, seeing how he was holding Brace near him. It was at that time he noticed that the reflection revealed the clouds in the sky. Zack grinned as he got an idea, looking back at the guy, who got a confused yet angry look on his face.

"What the hell's so funny?" The guy shouted. Brace turned her head only slightly, wondering what Zack was doing.

"I'm smiling cause I figured out how I'm gonna beat you." Zack said, hopping to the ground. Brace's eyes went wide at what she saw.

"Zack don't! He's an earth elemental. Did you just forget what almost happened last time?" Brace said, sounding worried. Zack just smirked as he ran straight towards the giant guy, who also grinned.

"Idiot!" He shouted, punching the ground again. As before, the bracelet on his wrist shinned as a row of stalagmite started appearing from the ground, each heading for Zack.

"Now I just got to time this right." Zack said to himself, runnin straight towards the barrage of incomnig stalagmites. His eyes widened as he found the moment he was looking for. He jumped as high as he could, then blasted the ground just as a stalagmite had appeared. With the added advantage of the stalagmite, the blast shot Zack straight into the air, at least twenty feet. Brace and the giant guy looked at him, stunned, at his sudden plan. The guy's expression changed to panic as he saw flames enveloping around Zack's fist. Using his other hand, Zack blasted to the sky, shooting him back down towards the giant who was still holding onto Brace. Zack screamed as he attempted to smash his fist into the giants face. Added with the fire that was enveloped on his hand, it could've proven fatal. But Zack's eyes went wide as he felt the giant grab his hand, even with the flame burning on it. As the giant grinned, Zack saw that the giant's hand looked like a stone hand, protecting him from the flame. The giant threw the girl a few feet as he looked back at Zack, grinning.

"Ha, not so smart are we?" The guy said, smirking. Zack glared at him as he attempted to kick him in the head, which was easily blocked by the giant's other arm. Grinning, he threw Zack a few feet away. Zack's eyes went wide with terror as he still saw parts of the old stalagmite still there. He screamed in agony as the stalagmite pirced his back, going through his chest. Luckly for him, it was ony a few inches wide and only bout two inches long, thanks to the blast earliar. Zack could feel the blood trickling down his mouth as he saw the stalagmite that went through his chest.

"Zack!" Brace shotued, worried. As Zack slowly turned his head, he could see tears rolling down her face. He glared back in anger, looking at the giant guy who threw him.

"Ha ha ha! You think that you had a chance against me? The great Matsu?" He shouted, sounding victorious. But to his surprise and Brace's surprise, he saw Zack chuckling to himself, as if not even caring about the fact he was stabbed. "What's so funny?!" Matsu stammered, startin to glare at him. Zack looked back with a mischevious yet victorious look, knowing that his plan had worked.

"You really don't get it do you?" Zack asked, slowly and painfully pulling the stalagmite out of his chest. yelped a tiny bit to himself as he slowly leaned up, using one hand to support him, while sitting with one knee up and the other arm over his knee.

"What are you talking about? You lost, and I'm going to win!" Matsu shouted. Zack just shook his head as he still looked at Matsu.

"Correction, I already won by the time you ambushed me!" Zack shouted, causing Matsu to look at him a bit shocked. As he looked, he saw Zack's hand turning on fire. He smirked at the thought.

"You think you can get me with that blast? You'll just be stalling for your life!" Matsu yelled. But as he looked more carefully, he saw Zack setting the blood next to him on fire. Matsu's eyes widened as he saw a trail of blood all leading back to him. He panicked as attempted to get out of the way of the oncoming blood trail. But he gasped as he saw his feet were melted to the ground he was standing on. "What the? But how?!" Matsu stammered, seeing the blood get closer. Zack smirked, as he slowly got to his feet, standing a little crooked from his injuries.

"It was from the blood on my leg." Zack said, turning around and revealing the bleeding leg on his back. At that time, Zack was looking back as to how he came up with his idea. "I knew I couldn't simply blast you, seeing how you were holding onto Brace, and I knew an upward approach agaisnt someone with your size would be complete stupidity. Esspecially seeing how you can control rock, I somewhat expected you to cover yourself with it. So that's why I purposely got caught by you. I scratched the back of my leg a bit more when I ended up in the tree back there. Seeing how it kept on dripping, I figured what better way to attack you than hitting you from right under your nose. Of course, even with the amount of blood I had, I knew it wouldn't be enough if it was near you." Zack said, causing Matsu to stare wided eyed at his palm. When he looked, he saw the blood that got on his hand when he blocked Zack's bleeding leg. As he looked more closely, his entire right side was caught in blood from when the blood dripped on him. "And lastly..." Zack started. "I knew the blood would move a bit too slow to catch up on you, so I partially melted the ground below your feet, making just hot enough for you to sink into." Zack said. At that moment, Matsu screamed as the blood finally reached him, exploding on impact.

Brace just covered herself, not wanting to get any dust in her eyes, as Zack just stood there and watched, not even caring about the wind he could feel blowing agaisnt his hair. As the smoke scattered, Brace and Zack saw Matsu, on the ground, but not dead. Brace was truely impressed. She was surprised that someone who never used a bracelet before managed to take down a normal bracelet user, not to mention against an earth type. Brace looked back at Zack worriedly though as she heard him moaning again, falling to one of his knees.

"Zack!" She yelled, worried, as she ran up to him. "Are you ok?" She asked.

"Yeah...I'm fine...Go check on the big guy for me." Zack replied, causing Brace to go wide eyed.

"Are you nuts?! He tried to kill us! Why would you..." Brace stammered, before Zack shot her a glare.

"Check on him now!" He shouted. Brace looked at him a little scared. She's never seen him angry like that before, but then again being a teenager she supposed he couldn't live with killing another person. She wwanted to say something, but seeing how he was already injured, she simply nodded as she went back to check on Matsu, following Zack's orders. She was feeling really nervous, not knowing what to expect, but since the other guy was injued as well she sighed, guessing she didn't have to worry. As she looked, she saw alot of scrapes and bruises on his body, but nothing fatal.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked, poking his head. She flinched a bit as she saw him jump straight up. But there were a few things unsual about him. For one thing he seemed to have shrunken down to their average size. Two, he had a strange look on his face, rubbing his head as he looked around.

"Oh, hello. Um...where am I?" Matsu asked, looking all around him. Brace was so confused, she didn't even notice Zack walking up behind him.

"Don't you remember anything?" Zack asked, confused as well.

"Um...last I remember, was..." Matsu started, before starting to scream as he squeezed his head. Zack and Brace looked at him confused for a moment. To Zack, he figured either he hit him too hard, or thinking too much gave the guy a head ache. Either way though, he knew that something wasn't right about it, and when he looked more closely, what he saw made him realize he was right. As Matsu screamed, Brace and Zack could see some strange shadowy figure resonating around Matsu, as if it was an aura. Brace stood in fear though as he saw the strange figure starting to float in the air. As they looked, the both gasped as they could see two round ovals on it's head, indicating where it's eyes were. It quickly rushed towards Brace, who couldn't move due to being frozen in fear.

"Look out!" Zack shouted, pushing her out of the way in time just as the spirit was being absorbed into his body.

"Zack!" Brace shouted, seeing the strange figure going into his body. Everything around Zack went dark as he blacked out, and the only thing he could feel before blacking out was his head hitting the ground.

Zack slowly winced as he started to open his eyes. As he opened his eyes more, he saw Brace right above him, starring down on him with a worried look. When he fully opened his eyes, her worried look changed to a smile, seeing how he was awake.

"Zack!" She shouted, throwing her arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. "Are you ok?" She asked, still hugging him. She heard some strange hacking noise coming from him as she looked at him curiously. She threw a strange look as she saw his head was changing colors.

"C-Can't...breath..." He said, breathing deeply. She blushed as she realized she was suffocating him, as she let go. He heaved heavily, seeing how he could finally breath.

"Sorry." She replied. She looked at Zack curiously, surprised he hadn't changed at all after what happened.

"About time you woke up, lazy ass." A mysterious voice said. Zack's eyes widened, realizing they weren't the only two there. He looked around, expectin to see someone next to him, but all he could see was the lake they were at earliar, the fact it was night, and Matsu sleeping.

"Who said t..." Zack stopped as he realized what he just thought of. When he looked back, he threw a strange look. "What the hell is Matsu doing here?" Zack yelled. Brace sighed, knowing this is one of the things he would yell when he woke up.

"Well I needed someone to help carry you." Brace said. Zack grew an irritated look, seeing how she was either too lazy to carry him, or that she said that he was too heavy.

"Don't play dumb, you've been eating too much fat ass." The voice said again. Zack's eyes widened as he realized it was the sound of his own voice. The problem was that he didn't even say anything.

"Where are you?" Zack demanded, looking around.

"Down here." The voice replied. Zack looked as he saw the lake, figuring whoever it was might actually live in the lake. As he looked at it, seeing nothing but his own reflection, he fell back from fright seeing his own reflection moving on it's own.

"Ahh!" Zack screamed. Brace felt a sweat drop behind her head, even though she knew this was coming, she wasn't expecting it to be that surprising. It was his own reflection that was talking to him. The only diffrence is that was noticable between the two was the fact his reflection had glowing yellow eyes, the same as the appiration that tried to attack Brace earliar.

"I told you he was goin to do that." His reflection said to Brace.

"I was hoping you'd be wrong..." She murmured. Zack jumped up again, looking back into the water.

"W-What the? What the hell are you? Or me? Or...whatever the heck you are!" Zack stammered, completely shocked at the fact his own reflection was alive.

"I'm you dingus." The reflection replied.

"How can you be me? I'm myself...or me... This is so confusing!" Zack said, rubbing his head from the immense headache he was starting to get. But as he did, he noticed his reflection doing the exact same thing, yelling from the pain he was feeling.

"Ow, take it easy you idiot! It hurts me too!" Zack just looked at his reflection, completely confused.

"Ok, one of you two start talking!" Zack commanded, switching looks back and forth between his reflection and Brace.

"Long story short dingus." His reflection started, before Zack glared back again.

"Stop calling me dingus!"

"You know that pretty girl? Well apparently you messed up my plan and now I'm stuck in your body because of it. Although I will admit, after being in your head, you got a fucked up life." The reflection said, looking like he was leaning back in the water.

"Stay out of my head!" Zack shouted, splashing the water harshly. Brace looked at him a little worried, not knowing anything about Zack's life since he came here, nor did she know what the reflection meant about his life. Then again, she'd rather not ask, seeing how angry it was making him that the reflection simply mentioned it.

"Well either way, apparenlt until we get the wish stone, I'm stuck like this and you are too, whether or not we hate the other. And trust me, I can easily tell we both do." His reflection added. Zack looked at him confused a bit though. He had no idea what the heck a wish stone was. He didn't really believe in wishes at his age. When he looked back on the week of the incident, he remembered how he wished his mother would come back alive, even though it obviously never happened. The reflection looked back at Brace, who was shooting a nervous look, as the reflection raised an eye brow.

"Uh...what?" Brace asked, nervously, trying to figure out why the reflection was starring at him.

"You never told him, did you?" The reflection said, causing her to give a blank stare. Zack looked at him confused. What didn't she tell him? Was she keeping something secret from him, like who she really was or wanted?

"What's he talking about?" Zack asked, throwing a stern look at Brace, who gulped nervously seeing how there was no way out of this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Episode 3: Em'brace The History**

Zack just looked at Brace with a curious expression on his face, while crossing his arms as if he's not in the mood for excuses. He had so many questions to ask her, and knowing her, it would be a long time for her to explain everything. First off, why on earth, or wherever he was at the time, would he enter some strange world where bracelets control the elements? Second, why was Matsu, or the apparation earliar after Brace? And lastly, what the heck is the apparition that is now stuck in Zack's body? He looked at Brace who seemed to keep looking at the ground at her side, not wanting to answer. She knew though that she would have to either way, so there wasn't any point in hiding it. With a great sigh, which Zack looked more closely at, he started paying full attention to her as she was going to talk.

"In this world, there are many diffrent elements that control the balances here." Brace started. "There are many diffrent kinds of elements, but the most common are fire, water, earth, air, light, and dark. Each element also has a diffrent kind of diety, and theres a diffrent diety for the same element in each bracelet." Zack grew a bit surprised at this as he looked at his bracelet. My bracelet has a diety inside of it? Zack said in his mind.

"Of course you have a diety in your bracelet idiot." His reflection said again, causing Zack to grow an irritated look.

"Stay out of my head!" He shouted to the lake. Zack and Brace looked back though as they heard Matsu getting up, walking over to them.

"Will you two keep it down? I'm trying to sleep." Matsu said, rubbing his eyes. He sat down near Brace and Zack, seeing how something was going on.

"Oh, sorry Matsu. I'm just telling Zack about the history of these bracelets." Brace replied.

"And speaking of annoyances, what should we call you anyway?" Zack asked his reflection.

"Most people call me Jeris...or at least others like me..." He started, before Zack turned his back on him. Thanks for the info, ignoring you now. Zack said in his mind. "Hey!" Jeris shouted angrily.

"So you were saying Brace?" Zack asked, trying to get back on track.

"As I was saying, of those six dieties, there is another that is known as the Godess of the Balance, seeing how she originally created the six dieties to control all the other balances. The six dieties were also given forms and shape, seeing how they would need to watch over their land in the precense of danger. The dragon was the diety of fire. The Hydra, also known as the serpent of the sea, water, kinda obvious with the word sea in it. A dragonhawk, which is said to be a legendary hawk with the ability of lightning and the size of a dragon, is the diety of wind. The light element is said to be that of many mystical pure creatures. The shadow is sorta like the light, having an array of different deities as it's element." Brace said, before Matsu cut her off.

"And my personal favorite..." Matsu started, before showing his bracelet again. "The golem, the diety of rock."

"Anyway, the diety of light and the diety of darkness are said to be very diffrent dieties." Brace said, causing Zack to look curious.

"What makes them so diffrent?" He asked.

"They're diffrent elements dumb ass." Jeris replied.

"Shut up!" He shouted, splashing the water.

"Well, obviously of course, each element has a power over diffrent elements, as well as a weakness to that element. For example, fire is weak against water, whereas fire is stronger against earth." Brace said, causing Zack to look weridly.

"Wait, you mean to tell me the only reason I won was because my element was stronger than earth?" Zack said, feeling a little disspointed in knowing he was almost defeated by someone weaker than him.

"Hehe, actually you were almost defeated by me. I will admit though for someone who never used a bracelet before, you did catch me by surprise." Jeris said, crossing his arms. "If you didn't knock Matsu out so hard, I'd stll be possesing him."

"So in other words...I was almost defeated by a weakling..." Zack said, lowering his eyes as he looked at him.

"Hey!" Jeris shouted. Matsu and Brace laughed a bit.

"Anyway, the thing about the light element and the darkness element is that both of them aren't weak against the other four elements, nor are they stronger. The only ones their stronger against is each other, as well as being weaker than the other." Brace said.

"Huh." Zack said. He was starting to find this a little interesting. Deities, Goddesses, elements? This was really starting to get on Zack's interest. But what he wanted to know is what all of them had to do with this "wish stone" that Jeris mentioned before. He didn't even know, although he was sure Brace was going to tell him eventually, what the heck a wish stone is. Even though he sure he knew what it does, given the name, he still questioned what it would look like or where he would get it. He snapped back into consious as he looked back at Brace, seeing what else she had to say.

"So...what happened to this Godess thing?" He asked. Brace just looked to the side again as a upset look took over. She sighed depressingly as she looked back at Zack.

"The Goddess gave each balance a job to do, as well as putting it in charge of that world to safeguard. For awhile, this turned out pretty good. But that all changed one day when each of the balances lost control. They started attacking one another, each one stronger against a foe, and weaker against a different foe. The only two balances that managed not to lose control was the light and the dark elements. They proposed a truce in order to maintain the other balances, and stop the fighting. No one really knows how they did it, but the Goddess herself gave them a very powerful stone, which is of course the wish stone. But that didn't last long. It turned out after awhile, the dark balance was the one who started the war, and it did it so it could get the wish stone."

"Hurray for darkness!" Jeris shouted.

"Shut up!" Zack replied. He looked back at Brace curiously. "So what happened after? What happened to all the other balances and the Goddess thing?" Brace just shook her head.

"No one knows for sure. But because of the wishstone, the dark balance wished for ultimate power, and for the Goddess to be banished to the living world. As a Goddess, she can't do anything if she's in physical form, and therefore, was unable to stop the dark." Zack's eyes widened at what she just said. He started to find it rather weird why it's always the dark side that's evil.

"Why is it never a dark side that's good?" Jeris asked, annoyed.

"Huh, murdering people and theivery...that's a good qeustion." Zack said, sarcastically.

"Anyway, the only problem the dark balance had was the light was given a wish stone too. Seeing how they were unable to make a wish agianst darkness, being a peaceful balance, they refused to rise up against the dark elements, so long as they don't do anything to harm the others. The agreement was made, and for some strange reason, since then the dark element has left the planet, and no ones seen it for thousands of years." Brace said.

"Wow...that's pretty interesting." Zack said, sounding impressed. He raised an eyebrow as he heard Brace giggle. "What's so funny?"

"Well, like you said, it's just a story. No one really knows if it's all true." Brace said.

"Of course it's true you dumbass. Why else would we be gone for so long?" Jeris asked. Brace just looked to the side a little dissopointingly. Zack looked back at Jeris in anger. Why the heck couldn't he just make this stupid apparation disappear, and not be bothered by him again? Besides, there was no reason for him to be picking on Brace, seeing how Zack already messed up his plans earliar.

"Hey, knock it off Jeris!" Zack shouted.

"It's ok." Brace said. Zack looked at her a bit confusingly. What did she mean it was ok? He said to himself. She shouldn't let people pick on her for no reason, and not even do something to fight back about it. "What he said is partially true, the dark balance has been gone for who knows how long. I was more surprised than anything when I saw him come out of Matsu's body."

"And I swear I'll get payback!" Matsu said angrilly, punching his fists together. Jeris just stuck his tounge out at Matsu, causing Zack and Brace to chuckle a little.

"So how are you going to help me get back to my world by doing this?" Zack asked, still confused.

"Wow, you still haven't figured it out yet? You really are stupid."

"I said SHUT UP!" Brace just chuckled again.

"I'm surprised you haven't even realized it yet." Brace said, causing Zack to look at her questionably.

"Realized what?" Brace just pulled back the sleeve on her tunic, causing Zack to go white eyed. She had a golden bracelet too, only on the ends of it, they looked more like a halo with beams connecting to each other. In the center of it was a pure white diamond, that still seemed to shine, even with the fact it was night.

"Y-Y-Your..." Zack said, who was too surprised to say anything else.

"Yup, I'm one of the citizens who descend from the light balance." Brace said happily. Zack was speechless. He had no idea he was travling with a desendant of the light balance, even though he didn't even know anything about balances or deities for that matter. Still, it did seem kinda interesting to him. He was also happy to realize this, because he pretty much figured out the rest for himself.

"So, if I returned you to your home, you'd think they give me the wish stone?" Zack asked curiously.

"Mm hm!" Brace said happily. "Even though I doubt they'd give it right away, I doubt they would turn down a fellow helper of the light balance."

"But didn't you say they were going to use it in case the dark balance attack?"

"Well, that's why it'll take them a few days to make up their minds, but I'm pretty sure they'll still be ok with it. Besides, if they get the other balances to help, there's no way the dark balance will stand a chance." Brace said, trying to sound positive. Zack knew what he had to do now. Bring the girl back, convince them to let him use the stone, and then he can leave out of this place. He nodded sure of himself as he stood, squeezing his fist.

"Ok, then let's go. I'll get you back just as I promised." Zack said, sounding confident.

"You really are an idiot aren't you?" Jeris said. Normally Zack would yell shut up, but from being overly annoyed from saying it too often, he decided to let it slide this time. He just moaned as he rubbed his head, getting annoyed with him.

"Ok, why do you think I'm an idiot?" Zack asked.

"Hello? I've been in your mind dude. I know what you know, and FYI, this planet is ten times bigger than that of earth." Zack's mouth dropped from what he just said. Ten times bigger?! He stammered to himself. He thought this place would be at least the same size as earth, if anything mabye a tiny bit bigger. But ten times it's size. He looked back at Brace, with an annoyed, twitchy-eyed expreression. Brace just felt a sweat drop behind her as she chuckled sarcastically.

"I...uhh thought earth was the same size..." Brace said. Zack just collapsed on his back in disbelief, shockd that he'd have to go through so much more...no, ten times more, than he would have to do back at his world.

"Either way, we can't go anywhere till morning." Matsu said, looking into the woods. Zack looked at him confusingly as he saw Matsu staring all around the forest.

"Why not?" Zack asked.

"Well lets see idiot...if they're not going in the woods at night, mabey it means..." Jeris started before sarcastically gasping. "Mabey theres something in the forest!" He said sarcastically. Zack just grew an annoyed look as he looked at Brace.

"Are you sure theres no way to get him to shut up?" Zack asked. Brace sighed.

"Unfortunately, he won't go away unless there's daylight out. Anyway, the reason we're not going anymore is to avoid the

wisps." Brace said, looking at the forest like Matsu was. Zack was completely confused as of now.

"What's a 'wisp'?" He asked.

"It happened during the war." Jeris said. Zack looked at him questionably, surprised he hadn't made any smart mouth comment about him not knowing.

"What are you talking about?"

"The balance war dingus. During it a lot of people got killed from it. Usually, they all ascend, or go to the afterlife as we call it, but because of the bracelets people have strong spiritual connections to the place where they died. Not many people know about it, and some still have hatred for others that live today." Jeris replied. Zack didn't know, or expect that. He knew that people died and everything, but the least he would expect is for people to come from the afterlife, and hold grudges against the places they died.

"But if the war was going on, people would know that they would die, right?" Zack asked.

"Of course they would."

"So then why would they still be angry?"

"Because before anyone could pass on the info that the dark balance, which rules might I add, they thought they were fighting to protect their homes, while figuring out before ascending that they were mere pawns in some game of chess." Zack looked a bit surprised, forgetting about that. Having people use you as a mere pawn in any type of situation is the worst thing he could have thought of. No one should put other people as pawns, not without some sort of reward for their efforts. He looked back though as he heard Brace gasping.

"What's wro…" Zack tried to say, before Brace covered his mouth with her hand.

"Shhh!" She shushed, looking back at the forest. As she took her hands off, Zack looked back to see some strange glowing light getting closer. When it got closer, it appeared to take the shape of a blue glowing flame, still burning and moving on it's own. He started to get nervous though as the flame got closer to them. Zack didn't even know what to do, seeing a dead soul for the first time, or a wisp in this matter. To him it was more like a ghost, although based off what he saw on TV, he expected it to have an actual form than being a flame.

"Hi." The flame spoke, causing Zack to grow really surprised. By the sound of it, it sounded like a little girl's voice, echoing a bit through the flames. He looked at Brace curiously as he heard her sigh.

"False alarm, it's only girl." Brace said. Matsu breathed deeply, holding his breath the hold time because, aside from the fact he was scared, he didn't want to make any kind of sound.

"False alarm? Weren't you panicking about her being here just a few seconds ago?" Zack asked.

"Normally, if it was an elemental soul, then yes. But children don't get their bracelets until they get to the age of about ten, or if they pass the academy." Brace replied. Zack grew an even more curious look, as well as confused.

"Academy?"

"It's a place for people to learn how to use elements idiot." Jeris replied, obviously being followed by Zack's glare.

"You know, I'm really getting sick of you."

"Well if you stopped asking stupid questions then I wouldn't!"

"Hey, you know what I know remember? Then you should know I don't know what the heck your talking about!" Zack yelled. As the two argued, the spirit flame turned around, looking at Brace, confusedly.

"Why is this guy arguing with his reflection?" The wisp asked. Brace just scratched her head.

"Apparently he's not from this world, or at least according to him. He also apparently got possessed by some weird apparition, and now his possessor is in his reflection at night."

"Huh…" The wisp said curiously, looking back at the two who were still bickering.

"Look, as far as I know, we should both agree that I don't know anything here, and you stop calling me stupid."

"I can't dingus." Jeris replied. Zack moaned as he heard wouldn't stop. Worse yet, Zack was getting really tired, and really annoyed with his apparition.

"And why, might I ask, can't you?"

"Hey, I'm a shadow elemental. It's not in my nature. Besides, I'm only stating the truth."

As they continued to argue, Matsu 's eyes widened as he looked over the forest. Coming a bit slowly, but surely, he could see the sun starting to rise. He cheered as he could start to see the sun. It was at that time that Brace looked back, seeing the sun starting to rise as well. She smiled as she tapped Zack on the shoulders, who grew a grin as he saw the sun coming up. When he looked back at the lake, he grew a bit surprised to see his reflection was normal agian, but then again condition was until the sun rises. He squeezed his fist, satisfied that his reflection was gone.

"Yes! Woohoo!" He cheered.

"Uhh...Zack..." Brace said, looking under his feet. When he looked down, he grew a confused look when he saw he had two shadows.

"Oh what the..." He stopped though as he noticed the wisp was gone. "Hey, were'd the girl wisp thing go?"

"They're only out during the night. They can't manifest in the sunlight." Brace said. Zack just shrugged a bit, agreeing about the fact it made somewhat of sense. Although it would be nice to know where she still went.

"Ok then, what's the plan on from here?" Zack asked.

"First we head to the town closest to here. I wanna get some supplies for the long trip ahead of us. Then we're going to be travling underwater." Brace said, using her fingers to count off what they would have to do.

"Cool! How are we going to do that?" Zack asked, interested.

"I don't know." Brace replied, followed by the thud of Zack landing on the ground in disoppointment. He hopped back to his feet, wanting answers.

"Then how are we going to travel? And why do we have to go underwater?" Zack asked.

"Well I do suppose we could always trable above water..." Brace started, looking like she was in thought.

"So what's the problem then?"

"Problem is theres a large mountain over it. If we travled through it, it would take practically a month."

"Ahh." Zack moaned.

"Well how are we suppose to go underwater?"

"I got a brother back at the town. I can ask him to help us." Matsu replied.

"Does he have a submarine?"

"I think so. But theres only enough for two people..." Matsu replied disoppointingly. Brace and Zack looked down, thinking about what to do. They didn't know how to pilot a sub, but Zack needed to go with Brace, and Brace needed to get home. Seeing the expression on their faces, Matsu sighed as he made a decision. "Huff fine. You two can go." Matsu said, causing Brace and Zack to reply with surprised faces. "We got an autopilot setting on it. But I suppose you could use it...." Matsu was cut off when Brace hugged him tightly.

"Thanks Matsu, your the best." Brace replied. Matsu blushed as he rubbed his head.

"Ah...shucks..." Matsu replied. Zack grew irritated, seeing them getting off track. He gave a sarcastic cough, reminding them that they were going off subject.

"Anyway..." Brace started. "Even after the underwater travle we need to cross a desert."

"Ah great, and me without my sunscreen." Zack joked, irritantly.

"But before we do any of that..." , Brace started, putting high emphasis on any, "We need to find you a tutor." Brace said, pointing at Zack. Zack grew a confused look on his face.

"What?! Why the hell do I need a tutor? " Zack stammered. He did have techniacally a good point. He kept thinking to himself why he needed one. Before the incident seven years ago, he was actually very smart for a tenth grader, already at a pre-collage level. His GPA was high as well, mostly because after the incident, he home schooled himself on computers around towns he's visited in the world.

"Ok, knowing you, I think I got a good idea of what your thinking of, and no, not a kind of educational school tutor." Brace said, getting a confused look from Zack.

"Then what kind of tutor are you talking about?"

"An elemental teacher. No offense but your not really the best when it comes to figuring out how to use your bracelet." Brace said, remembering his fight with Matsu. She remembered all the times he reacted to something weird, like why his own hand was on fire, and just putting his flaming hand in front of him when the thorns were attacking him, which incinerated. And he almost got killed if he didn't flail his arms like a mad man, almost getting impaled by the incoming stalagmites.

"What? No way! I kicked Matsu's butt before and I can do it anytime!" Zack shouted. He started to feel nervous though as he forgot Matsu was there, and he could feel his angry glare behind his back.

"You almost got killed idiot. You have a bettter chance of dying before we even get out of the forest! By the way, Matsu. What town is your brother in?" Brace asked. Matsu looked like he was starring into thought for a minute before answering.

"He should be at Kelika village." Matsu asnwered, causing Brace to look at him surprised.

"Kelika? That's three towns over!" Brace said, a bit disoppointed. Zack just felt like falling to the ground in disoppointment, thinking he would never get home. "On the other hand, Yustinola Village is outside the forest, and I heard the tutors there were very very good." Brace said.

"Don't I get a say in this!?" Zack stammered, not wanting to do this at all.

"Not unless you wanna die." Brace said. Zack just grunted as he glared at her. He scuffed to himself as he sat down, cross legged, and crossing his arms. Brace just moaned irritated at his childish act. "Now what are you doing?"

"I'm not leaving until you agree not to give me a tutor." Zack said. As he looked back, he saw Brace looking at him annoyed, before growing a slight grin that caused him to get a nervous look. It only increased as he saw her whispering something into Matsu's ears. When she was done Matsu nodded as he stepped in front of her, starring right at Zack strangely.

"Um...hi?" Zack said nervously, hoping he wasn't still mad about what Zack said earliar. Matsu just continued to stare for a few seconds, then raised his fist. In a brown flash from his bracelet, Zack gasped as he was suddenly wrapped around, not in vines, but very hard piles of stone that seemed to just wrap around him as if he was a magnet. As Zack fell on his back, Matsu picked him up, and carried him over his shoulders as Matsu and Brace began walking through the woods. "Hey! Put me down before I kick your asses!" He shouted, kicking his feet which were the only thing not wrapped around in stone, aside from his head.

"If you can get out of there before we reach town, we won't get a tutor." Brace said, giggling a bit victoriously.

"Matsu! Matsu! Put me down and get this stuff off of me!" Zack kept shouting. His eyes then widened a bit as he smirked, trying to use his bracelet. Luckily, or at least to him, he managed to get the fire started. But he started screaming a bit as he burnt himself. "Owww!"

"That's solid rock man. Just heating it up yourself won't help you much." Matsu said, continuing to carry him. Zack just continued to moan as he knew he would never get out of this mess. Unknown to them though, as they kept walking through the woods, a mysterious shadow in the pushes was looking at them, watching their every move.....


	4. Chapter 4

**Episode 4: Em'bracing One's Adventure**

As Brace and Matsu walked through the woods, Zack continued to struggle with his bonds. He knew that they were very close to getting to the city, and if he couldn't get out, he was stuck with a stupid teacher as a tutor. He didn't know how many hours have passed. All he did know is that soon they would get to the city, and he would lose. He concentrated really hard on the one spot to gather energy at his hands, slowly gathering it all for one heavy blast, since normal blasts didn't affect it. Then, all at one time, he let go and blew away the rocks that were binding him together, hoping off of Matsu's shoulder and jumping in front of Brace and Matsu. The two of them looked surprised as they saw Zack starting to stand, looking back at them with a face of victory.

"Ha! Told you I could do it!" Zack said. Matsu and Brace applauded.

"Wow, that was really good work." Brace replied.

"Hell yeah!" Zack replied, pointing two fingers up in a victory pose.

"But...you might wanna turn around." Brace said, moving Zack's head to look behind him. As Zack looked, he moaned in displeasure as he saw they had just arrived in town, right when he got there.

"Ahhh c'mon!" He shouted. Brace just giggled to herself as she walked into the town. Zack continued to moan to himself as Matsu came up next to him.

"Ah, no worries eh? At least you got out, so that's a sign of improvement." Matsu said, trying to cheer him up.

"Oh forget it, lets just go." Zack said, sounding very disoppointed as he walked into the town following Brace. They have been searching town everywhere, but for some strange reason, Brace couldn't find any tutors. She was intent on getting help for Zack, but apparently that wasn't happening at the moment, which Zack took much pleasure upon. He even thought to himself lucky if he wasn't going to find any tutor whatsoever. His expression increased as he heard Brace sigh dissoppointingly after an hour of looking around. As he noticed though, the villages around here seemed to be made of just plain stones and woods. Not quite what he'd expect for magical people, then again he thought they had their reasons.

"Man, this isn't working." Brace said, sitting on a bench.

"Oh well, I guess we'll have to go without one." Zack said, happily. That was, until a stranger came up behind them, which Zack and Brace noticed.

"Excuse me, I happened to hear you say something about needing a tutor?" The stranger said. He was shrouded in a dark brown cloak, covering everything about him except his feet and his mouth. His eyes were shrouded in shadows.

"Uhh...yeah." Brace said, standing. "Who are you?" The stranger just chuckled.

"I....go by many names, but I believe this will settle as a symbol." The stranger said, pulling back his sleeves. When Zack and the others looked, they gasped at what they saw. The stranger had not one, not two, but all four of the primary bracelets, except for light and darkness. They each shimmered a diffrent light as the the others looked. While standing, Brace and Matsu bowed in respect, while standing. Zack looked at them curious, before Matsu grabbed him by the head, bending it down and forcing him to bow.

"Hey!" Zack shouted, trying to lose Matsu's grip on him.

"Please forgive us, we didn't know you were a kaise." Brace said, respectfully. Zack finally wrangled his grip off of Matsu, rubbing his neck from how sore it felt from Matsu's grip.

"Geeze, what's the big deal? And what's a kaise?" Zack asked, wondering about their mysterious behavior. Brace looked up at Zack with a bit of an angered face.

"Zack, it's a kaise. They're masters of four primary bracelets! They're considered respectable because of their wisdom." Brace yelled.

"Wait, four? How do they get four? I thought you said you had to descend from a primary balance?" Zack asked, confused.

"Correction, I said I'm a descendant of the light balance, never said anything about needing to in order to use that element." Brace said. Zack felt a sweat drop behind his head, finding how ironic his misinterperatation was.

"Anyway, as I was saying, we're trying to find a tutor for Zack here." Brace told the stranger, pointing at Zack who turned his head away in anger, crossing his arms.

"For the last time I don't need a damn tutor!" He yelled.

"Hm...he's from a diffrent world, yes?" The stranger said, causing the others eye's to widen.

"H-How did you know that?" Zack asked, still in a bit of shock. Even though he didn't know anything about this world, as to how he could tell he was from a diffrent world was completely confusing. The clothing both worlds have aren't that diffrent, and he looks just like any other person in this world. And even more, he figured it out alot faster than Brace and Matsu did.

"Because of that." He replied, pointing to the ground. When the other's looked, they noticed they had shadows, except for Zack who had two. "I'm guessing you got possessed by an apparation?"

"Ok now your creeping me out." Zack said, wondering how the hell he knew all of this.

"Normally, a person from this world who gets possessed by an apparation mantains a single shadow. However, you seem to possess two. So etiher you were born this way, or you're from a diffrent world." He replied. Matsu and Brace looked a bit impressed, while Zack still was a bit nervous. He didn't want to put his trust into the hands of some complete stranger, esspecially one who seemed to know everything of the situation.

"So...can you help us?" Brace asked.

"What?!" Zack stammered, stepping in front of her. "No no no! There's no way I'm trusting this guy! Some kaise freak or not, I'm not doing this!" Zack stammered, glaring at the stranger. The guy just seemed to keep the same expression as he did before he smirked.

"Alright then, I know how to settle this. We'll have a duel. If I win I am your official teacher. But if you win, you can train yourself just as you like it." He said, causing Zack to throw a strange look.

"What? That's not even fair! You have four elements and I only have one!" Zack said, holding up his bracelet. The stranger looked intently on it to see it shimmering in the bright light. He smirked a bit as he grew an idea.

"If fairness is how you'd like to do it, then we'll have a simple match. Your fire bracelet against my fire bracelet." The stranger said. Zack seemed to be in thought for a moment, thinking about the proposition. He knew that being someone who used four diffrent elements would have more experience, but if it was the only way to not get a tutor, he decided to accept it then.

"Fine, we have a deal, but you better keep up your end of the bargain." Zack said. The stranger just seemed to chuckle to himself a bit before he respawnded.

"Very well then. Follow me." He said, as he lead the way to the outside of the forest. Zack grinned as he began to follow, before feeling something tugging his arm. When he looked back, he saw Brace holding onto his wrist with a worried face.

"Zack! Please don't do it. Duels with tutors are very different. If you lose here he'll kill you!" Brace said worried, causing Zack to gasp a bit surprised.

"What?! How the hell am I suppose to know that?!" He stammered, he started feeling nervous though as he felt the strangers hand on his shoulder.

"You weren't." The stranger replied. With immense strength, grabbing him by the shoulder, the stranger threw Zack into the air in the opposite direction. He must have been at least a hundred feet in the sky, going like thirty miles per hour. Brace and Matsu stood there with their mouths gaped open from shock, while they heard Zack's screaming echoing as he soared.

"Zack!" Brace shouted, a bit worriedly. The stranger put his arm in the way though before she could run after him.

"Don't worry. He won't get killed." The stranger said, as he took off with immense speed. Again, Matsu and Brace looked a bit shocked.

"How the heck is he so strong and fast?" Brace said, a little surprised. Even she has never seen someone like this before. Even in a world where elements control the world, and everything is completely diffrent, even she wasn't use to seeing someone with immense strength.

"It must be a earth and air bracelet." Matsu replied. Brace looked back at him curiously. "The wind bracelet enchances one's speed, while the earth one enhances one's strength. Putting them both together, let's just say I hope Zack is in one piece when we get there." Matsu said, running off into the woods. Brace was going to say something, but seeing how Matsu already left she didn't wanna waste time by standing around, and she quickly took off after them.

As Zack soared, he continued to scream, not knowing when he was going to land. By his guess, he was in the air for at least a minute so far, screaming as he kept going on and on forever. He couldn't tell if this meant he just lost or whatever, because by the time he'd fall, he would land painfully on the ground, or kill himself on the ground when he landed. He gasped though as something caught his leg, causing him to dangle down while in the air. He looked up confused until he gasped at the sight of the stranger from earliar holding him, while simply standing in the air.

"What the?" Zack stammered, looking down again to see how high he was, then back at the stranger. "Put me down idiot!" Zack yelled.

"As you wish." The stranger joked, causing Zack's eyes to widen in panic.

"No no wait, I didn't mean..." Zack started, before he was dropped by the stranger. He screamed as he got closer and closer to the ground, but snapped out of it as he looked back at his bracelet. He thought to himself for a few seconds before nodding, showing that he had an idea. Aiming his arm at the ground, Zack shot a wave of fire straight down, continuously. It took a few seconds, but he could finally feel his falling lessen as the fire blast pushed against the ground, causing him to rise a bit. He could finally make out what he was seeing, looking at the clearing he was at the other day. He moaned to himself but only for a few seconds, seeing how now was not the time for complaints. He blasted harder as he got closer and closer to the ground, finally doing a flip in order to land on his feet. When he did, he stood up again, looking around.

"Ok, now your seriously fricken dead!" Zack shouted angrily, punching his fist to his hand. He looked behind him though as he saw the stranger standing a few yards away from him, putting his hands through his sleeves.

"You can have the first strike, whenever you please." The stranger said with a smirk. Zack looked at him questionably for a bit. Why would he have me attack first? Zack thought to himself. He thought about it for a few seconds before grinning, thinking he knew what the stranger is going to do.

"Oh no, I've seen this trick before." Zack said, causing the strangers expression to grow quite curious.

"What ever do you mean?" He asked.

"Oh sure, I attack first, then you counter with a diffrent move, because I left myself open for an attack!" Zack said, corssing his arms. The stranger just chukled to himself before clapping.

"Bravo, you saw through my trick. Lesson one, complete." The stranger said, causing Zack to grow an annoyed expression.

"Can it with the lessons! We have a duel to do and as far as I know your not suppose to teach me anything unless you win!" Zack shouted, taking a battle stance. The strangers expression changed to a bit more of curiousity before putting his hands to the side.

"Very well then, if your confident enough, we shall have the duel as was proposed. I must warn you though..." The stranger said, lifting his head. Zack could see one of his eyes, which revealed to be very stern looking. "Your going to regret it." The stranger said. Zack looked more closely as he could see one of the four bracelets on the stranger's arm glow, the fire bracelet. He stayed in the stance he was in, ready for anything. But Zack's eyes widened as he saw an array of fire all channling to the palm of the stranger. At first, Zack had no idea what he was doing until he saw the stranger's palm starting to grow an immense ball of fire. It grew until it was probably at least two feet, causing Zack's eyes to widen. All at once, the stranger shot the blast straight towards Zack. Not knowing what else to do, he aimed his hand at the ground and blasted it, causing him to rise in the air, barely fast enough to dodge the on coming ball of flame. Zack looked, somewhat in fear, as he saw the blast continuing to go, leaving a trail of burnt ground in it's path. Zack snapped out of it though as he suddenly saw the stranger right in front of him, both his arms straight out and his legs bent in a little.

"I hope this isn't the best you can do." The stranger said. Zack's expression was blank. He realized that the stranger had a back up plan just in case. In the event that Zack used his bracelet to get into the air, because of the ball's immense size, he couldn't see the stranger doing the same thing Zack did, going closer to Zack. In a quick second, the stranger flipped forward, bringing his leg down when he flipped all the way around, smashing Zack back to the ground. Zack didn't even know what hit him first, as it was practically a quick flash that happened, and before he even knew it he crashed into the ground, with debris and dust scattered everywhere. The stranger came back down to the ground, arms in each sleeve, looking at Zack. Zack winced a bit, trying to open his eyes as he saw the stranger looking back at him.

"I really hope you change your mind before you accidently get killed." He said. Zack coughed a bit of blood that came running down his mouth as he slowly got up, trembling a bit to keep his balance as he got to his feet.

"I...I'm not giving up..." Zack said, who appeared to be breathing hard. He shouted in rage as he attempted to blast the stranger with fire, at full force. His eyes widened though as he saw that the stranger simply raised his hand, and somehow, the fire was absorbed into his palm.

"Ah, the things you could learn if you would simply allow me to teach you." The stranger said. Zack's expression grew angrier, as he jumped straight at the guy with a firey fist. It didn't work though, as he was kneed right in the stomach, causing more blood to come out. He was then grabbed by his neck as the stranger raised his head until he was about his hieght. Zack was about two feet off the ground in order to be the same size.

"Admiring effort, although that won't always help you win." Zack screamed as he felt like his neck was on fire, as fire was starting to burn on it. Trying to shrug it off, Zack managed to kick the stranger to the side with immense strength, causing him to lose his grip on Zack. Zack fell to one of his knees as he put one of his hands on the burn mark that was on his neck. As he looked back, he saw the stranger quickly getting off the ground, but with a grin.

"Very impressive. You just might make an excellent student." He joked.

"Shut up!" Zack shouted, blasting again towards the stranger, with the same results as last time. But what the stranger didn't see, partially due to the flames being in the way when he was absorbing it, Zack was shooting himself straight towards him, using one hand to blast behind him to send him shooting, and gathering energy into his other hand. The stranger simply smirked as he saw this, impressed by the preformance. Zack attempted to hit straight at his head, but the stranger simply moved his head to the side, causing Zack to miss. Zack couldn't believe it either, unable to stand how fast the stranger was, or how he was able to counter so easily. Next thing he knew he was grabbed by his wrist, while still in the air. He turned his eyes a bit, still seeing the stranger there smirking.

"Oh this is getting very fun indeed. May I show you though how to promptly use that attack?" The stranger asked sarcastically. Zack's eyes went blank as he saw massive energy being transferred to the strangers palm, as his fist began to catch on fire. At first, it was about the same size as Zack's. But it quickly grew within a few seconds as it now appeared to be a ball of fire that engulfed the strangers hand. With a quick trust, the punched his hand right in Zack's stomach, causing him to gasp at the pain he just felt. As he looked down, he saw the stranger continuing to grin. "Oh, and here's the part where it get's fun." With that, Zack was blasted back at quick speed, feeling the ball of fire still pushing him back agaisnt his stomach. Zack couldn't even find energy to scream in pain as he felt himself crashing through tree after tree after tree. With each one he crashed through, the blast demished a bit after bit after bit. Finally, Zack gasped air as he felt himself hitting the last tree, not crashing through it. He felt his skin being scrapped against the bark as he slowly fell to the ground, still brathing hard. When he looked down, he saw his shirt was torn from where the blast managed to hit him. He slowly lifted his head, still breathing heavily as he saw the stranger walking through the path that was destroyed, before stopping a few yards away. By this time the sun was down and the sky darkened.

"I really don't get you. You keep on trying, and refuse any help someone offers. Why is that?" The stranger asked. Zack just breathed heavily a bit for a few seconds, before making his way to his feet, taking a battle stance again.

"Becuase...this is my...a...adventure..." Zack said, breathing hard. He noticed though that the stranger's expression changed to a bit of anger.

"An adventure? Is that what your calling this? You think this is just like a video game, coming back to life if you lose a battle and getting stronger to win again?" The stranger said, taking a few steps closer. "Your nothing but an idiot. This is the real world. There is no extra lives, or bonuses for defeating a strong opponet. You don't get to choose how a game ends in most cases, because that's just they way they were meant to end. Do you have any idea what you'll get yourself into if you simply treat this as a game?" The stranger asked, removing the his robe. Zack's eyes went blank at what he saw. The stranger had cuts, scars, bruises, and what shocked Zack most was that he didn't have a right eye, it only appeared to be swollen completely. And he was balled with burns all across his head.

"This is the real world. Those who are untrainned to do things will result in this. I was like you once, wanting to go on adventure, and my very first element to receive was the fire one like you have. But I was careless, and my stupidity consumed me in flames like you see now. There is no happy ending, and you can't change one's destiny." The stranger said, putting his robe back on and putting his hood over his head. "I give you one last chance boy. Either you agree to be a student, or I will be forced to not hold anything back."

Zack just stood there speechless. He couldn't believe what happened to the guy, or what he saw. He couldn't believe he had the chance of being consumed by his own power, and he definitly didn't want to end up looking like the guy he just saw. He also knew that he was going to be having difficulty along the journey ahead, and he would be facing difficulties like this. But to him, he didn't want one changing his destiny. He chose his destiny the minute he put his arm into that hole and got sucked into this world, and he knew it. Looking back at the stranger, he sighed deeply as he put his arms to the side.

"Fine..." He said softly. The stranger just seemed to smirk.

"Very good choice. Now if you will follow me, we should be getting back to your friends..." The stranger said as he started to walk through the woods. He stopped though as he heard water hitting the ground. When he looked back, he saw a tear rolling down Zack's eye. His head was down as his body appeared to be shaking a bit.

"If I'm to get killed, then this is my destiny." Zack said, raising his head. The stranger just looked curiously as he saw more tears rolling down his face, and his expression was angry. "Your the one who doesn't get it. I refuse to let someone else control my life, and I refuse to accept any help to teach me how to use these stupid things!"Zack shouted. As the stranger looked, he raised his eye brow as he saw energy being gathered, not just to one, but both his hands. "I accepted this adventure the day I met Brace and Matsu. Sure, I didn't know what to expect of it, but it was my choice to keep going along!" The more he shouted, he walked towards the hooded stranger. "And even before I accepted this, I knew I would have an adventure when my mom was killed seven years ago!" The stranger's expression changed to a bit more curious as he heard this. " I knew that if I had an adventure, it would be because of her death, and I knew that there was no going out of it once it started!" His hands had formed a sphere of the fire, still continuing to grow. "I'm not about to let my life be put into someonelse's hands, and I'm not about to let you control it!" With that shout, he rushed to the stranger screaming in anger at full forced. The stranger simply gathered energy in both his arms as well, seeing no other option, rushign towards Zack as well. There was a large explosion as both of them collided their blasts together at once.

At the time, Matsu and Brace saw the explosion about a mile away from their location. When Brace was really worried about it, unable to tell if Zack was killed by teh stranger or vice versa. They both took off running towards the source of the explosion, hoping either of them were ok. When they got closer, they saw smoke rumaging throughout the woods, going in all directions. They stopped, knowing if they got closer they would suffocate from the smoke. Brace was getting really worried as of now, not being able to see anyone.

"Zack!" She shouted, echoing through the woods. Both of them looked curiously though as they heard coughing, but unable to tell who it was. They saw a shadow in the smoke as it started to get closer. Brace was praying to herself, hoping to see Zack. Their expression changed to a mix of shock and surprised when they saw Zack walking out through the woods, one of his hands over his sides and his clothes torn in a few areas.

"Zack!" She shouted happily. Zack slowly raised his head a bit, his eyes both half open as well as his mouth, he he saw Brace. He smiled a bit, shaking as he slowly raised his arm. He shook as he gave a thumbs up at them, telling them he was ok. But he suddenly collapsed on his front though, still giving the thumbs up sign. Brace, worried, rushed over to him, leaning him up aginst her lap.

"Zack! Please wake up, Zack!" She yelled. Brace and Zack looked back though as they saw another guy coming through. It was the stranger that agreed to be his teacher. His robes was torn just as well, but not as much as Zack's. He was breathing just as hard however, collapsing to one of his knees. Brace looked back disoppointingly, knowing how much Zack didn't want to have a tutor, and how much he tried in order to win.

"You won, didn't you?" Matsu said, disoppointed as well. The stranger just breathed for a bit before getting to his feet.

"He..." The stranger said, before stopping. He remembered back to what Zack said earliar, wanting to choose his own destiny and not wanting anyone to interfere with it. He felt like something was reawakened in his heart, remembering the same way he wanted an adventure as well. He looked back at Zack who was still breathing a bit heavily. As he looked more closely to his arms, he saw that there were burn marks on his hands from where he gathered his energy. The stranger thought for a moment, before looking back at Matsu. "He won." He said, getting a surprised look from Matsu and Brace.

"He won?" Brace replied, a little bit happily. The stranger nodded.

"He may not know how to control his power, but just give him some time and he'll master anything." The stranger said, as he started to walk away. Brace looked at him a little curiously though as she heard him stop. "But just in case...I'll be checking in every now and then." The stranger said. Matsu and Brace could see a smile as he looked back.

"What's your name anyway?" Brace asked, curiously.

"My name..." The stranger pasued for a moment. "Call me Leneth." The stranger said, as he disappeared into the forest. Brace and Matsu looked back at Zack who appeared to be snorring. Matsu picked him up, putting him over his shoulder as the two started walking back to town, Zack still snoring as they carried him. Brace gasped a bit as she was picked up by Matsu, who put her on his other shoulder. She looked at Zack's head who was on leaning on Matsu's back, smiling about how he was going to get good news in the morning...


	5. Chapter 5

**Side Note: Since the popularity of my series is going so well…(Looks at the only four reviews written so far) I managed to go online to find very useful pictures to use as portraits of what these characters look like since this is suppose to be anime. Note: Because I didn't draw these (Not saying I'm a bad drawer of course…) there might be some key differences between the description of each character and what they look like in the picture. I'll try my best though to make sure that I find best closely-related detailed photo of the characters that I can. I already found two pictures of the top characters of this series, Zack:** **.com/albums/h191/Moonlit_Tiger/Anime%**

**And Brace:** **.com/user_images/M/madhattergirl/1090989018_**

**I'll do my best as far as all the characters go, but for now, please enjoy what I bring, and if you have any links to good ideas of a picture of a character, please post it while reviewing. And also review like usual. Now on to the story…anime…book…manga…thing.**

**Episode 5: Em'bracing The Day**

Zack moaned a bit as he slowly lifted his eyes. He lurched up as he realized he wasn't in the forest anymore, but in some kind of room. He grunted a bit as he rubbed his head. He felt like he got hit by a truck, and wouldn't go away. As he looked around, he saw that there was another bed, two windows, which apparently was the only reason why there was any light, a chair, and a mirror. He slowly got out of bed as he pulled the covers off. That's when he felt something weird on him. When he looked down, he saw part of his side was bandaged up, and his head was partly bandaged too on the side of it. His eyes widened a bit as he had a sudden flash back about the day before, remembering the fight. He sighed to himself as he started to untangle the bandages, nice and slowly though, because his muscles still ached. When he untangled the bandages on his side though, he notice he was only wearing his pants. He pretty much guessed it was the only way to bandage him, seeing how doing it over the cloths would never help. He looked at the door though as he heard it opening, seeing Brace coming in.

"Zack!" She said happily, walking to him. "You're finally awake." Zack just smiled a bit, seeing how almost everything was fine.

"Yeah, I'm fine but..." Zack started to look at the floor a little disappointingly, thinking that he lost. "I lose the battle yesterday." He said with a depressed sigh. He looked at Brace curiously though as he heard her chuckle.

"Oh no you didn't." She said happily, causing his eyes to go wide.

"Y-You mean I won?" Zack asked. Brace simply nodded, closing her eyes while she smiled. "Yahoo!" Zack jumped, raising his fist to the air. But when he landed, he collapsed to the ground though on his side. Brace looked at him worriedly, knowing that he hadn't fully recovered. He grunted a bit as he used one of his arms to push himself off the wooden floor, still feeling his legs somewhat sore.

"You should probably rest more. You were a wreak when we got to you." Brace said, worriedly, as she helped him to his feet.

"Na...I'll be alright. Besides, we got to head on over to the next town. By the way, where are we?" Zack asked, looking around the room. He still had no idea what happened after the fight with Leneth.

"We're at an inn. Matsu carried you back to the town." Brace replied. Zack looked at her a bit curious, having this been the second time having to be carried by Matsu. He started to feel a draft though as he crossed his arms over his chest, shaking a bit from the cold. As he looked down, he remembered that he wasn't wearing a shirt, which would explain the obvious coldness he was feeling in the room at the moment.

"By the way...where's my shirt?" Zack asked.

"Oh, we threw it away." Brace replied. There was an awkward moment before Zack replied.

"What?!" He stammered. "Why the hell did you throw my shirt away?!"

"Well you can't blame us. That battle you had with Leneth completely tore your shirt to pieces. There wasn't anyway to sew it back together, and esspecially no way to make it look any better." Brace replied.

"Well what the hell am I suppose to be wearing around here?"

"Would you shut the hell up already?" A mysterious voice said, which Zack quickly noticed. When he looked back at the mirror, he grew an annoyed expression as he saw Jeris standing there. What annoyed him even more though was that he was wearing a shirt and Zack wasn't.

"What the hell?! Why do you get a shirt and I can't?" Zack yelled.

"Can it flame boy. Your snoring kept us all up last night." Jeris replied. Zack looked at Brace curiously, wondering if it was true.

"Brace?" Zack asked, seeing if she would agree. She scratched her cheek nervously with her finger, feeling a sweat drop behind her.

"Heh heh...well technically your snoring kept him up, and he kept yelling in the night trying to wake you up to get you to stop snoring. It's not much of a problem though, we just went into a different room." Brace said. Zack glared back angrily at Jeris, for the fact he was there and the fact he kept the others up last night as well.

"Well would someone mind telling me why the hell he's even here? I thought you had to turn into a shadow or something in the morning?" Zack questioned.

"She said in the daylight dumbass." Zack just squeezed his fist irritated.

"Even though it might not make you feel better, he's a better listener than you are." Brace said, chuckling a bit nervously. Zack just moved his head down in shame, seeing how she wasn't on his side at this case either.

"Well fine then, but can someone at least tell me what I'm suppose to wear? It's freezing around here." Zack said, shivering a bit. Brace just giggled a bit to herself as Zack looked back at her, curiously.

"We actually brought you some new clothes. Fire proof ones I should add." Brace said. Zack looked at her more curiously and interested now, never knowing about clothes that resist fire.

"How can these clothes resist fire? Is it some flame proof suit or something?" Zack asked.

"Man what a dumbass." Jeris said. Zack looked at him with an irritated and twitchy eye look. He looked back at the windows, noticing the shades were partly down. He smiled as he got a mischievous idea, walking over to it with much pleasure. At that time, Jeris looked at him nervously, wondering what he was doing, and hoping he wasn't going to do what Jeris thought he was going to do. "W-What are you doing?" Jeris nervously asked. Zack just smirked a bit as he grabbed the bottom of the shades. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Bye bye." Zack said to much pleasure, pulling the shades partially, and then going straight back up to the top. The light suddenly engulfed the entire room as the shades went up. When it hit the mirror, there was a bit of a flash from the reflection of the light for only a quick moment, before Jeris turned back into Zack's normal reflection. Zack grinned as he looked back at his feet, seeing two reflections again. He looked back at Brace though, remembering she was about to answer his question.

"So what were you going to say?" He asked.

"There elemental resistance clothes." Brace said. "Clothes woven directly from thread, and enchanted with the power of elements." Brace said, raising her bracelet which shimmered in the light. Zack grew a bit of a smile at this, seeming to like the idea of clothes being made out of elements themselves.

"Awesome! Can we get other ones like water proof ones? Or how about ones that make you fly?" Zack said, really excited.

"Uhh they don't exactly work that way Zack. There's only clothing that has resistances, and that's it." Brace said. Zack moaned as he put his head down in disappointment, seeing how he wouldn't be getting any other type of special clothing. "Just wait right here, I'll be right back with them." Brace said, as she went outside the door. Zack just sighed, seeing how aside from the fact he was going to need to take it easy for awhile, he completely wrecked his one and only favorite shirt. As he looked around though, he closed the blinds again as it got dark. When the shadows were enveloping the mirror, he heard a large gasp as his reflection turned back into Jeris.

"I swear if I get out of your body I'm going to kick your ass for that!" Jeris yelled.

"Yeah well worry about it later. I got a few questions for you and I want them answered!" Zack yelled back. Jeris blinked a little bit interested. He's never seen Zack so serious before, even if he was talking about what an ass he thought Zack was. He could tell though that this time it was completely diffrent, and that it was a lot more serious this time around.

"Yeah, what is it?" Jeris asked, annoyed.

"I need to know more about what's going on and where we're going. You said you've been around for a long time so you at least need to have some idea about what's going on around here, right?" Zack asked. Jeris just sighed irritably, annoyed with the fact first Zack got him stuck in his body, and annoyed with the fact he was demanding answers as of now.

"We're going to be crossing Kelika Village next. After that, we'll end up in the town where the fat guy's brother lives. Although I don't exactly see what the point is." Jeris said, irritating Zack.

"I'm returning Brace to her home and getting back to my world genius!" Zack yelled.

"I know that, it's just that you'd be wasting your time. That village is long gone by now." Zack's eyes widened at what he juist said.

"What the hell do you mean gone?!" Zack stammered. Jeris just chuckled to himself as he crossed his arms.

"Why the hell would I tell you?" Jeris said, smirking. Zack grunted in anger. This was a new form of irritation, even for Jeris. He couldn't tell if he was just kidding, or if he knew something that did happen and he wasn't telling Zack. Zack grunted as he headed for the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to tell Matsu!" Zack yelled. Right before he closed the door completely, he heard Jeris talking again.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Jeris said, causing Zack to stop as the door was mere inches from being completely closed. He opened it back up again as he went closer to the mirror to see what was wrong again.

"What do you mean you don't think that's a good idea?" He asked. Jeris just chuckled again.

"Think about it. You don't even know what I'm talking about, and you plan on telling Matsu? What do you suppose his reaction will be when he finds out something is wrong but neither of us will even say what it is, huh?" Jeris asked with a grin. Zack just grunted as he squeezed his fist in anger. He knew he had a point. Jeris was way to stubborn to tell them any good news, and Matsu would be going crazy and head straight to the village, not even trying to slow down and wait for the others in case he needed help.

"Well could you at least tell me why? Or something else like what it is that's going on around there?" Zack asked. Jeris just shook his head.

"Sorry kid, can't tell a living soul. Will mess up all the plans." Jeris said, smirking. He flinched though as he saw Zack banging against the mirror.

"What the hell are you talking about? You already told me something is going on, so what why the hell can't you tell me anything else?!" Zack stammered, angrily.

"Hey, you should be happy I told you anything to begin with! That's being generous." Jeris said. He looked at the door a bit before looking back at Zack, who noticed his strange look-around. "And if I were you, I'd pull the shade down again before someone thinks your insane for talking to yourself." Zack grew a nervous look as he knew what he meant, rushing over to the blinds and quickly pulling them up and causing Jeris to return back to Zack's normal reflection again. He turned around quickly as he saw Brace coming in, carrying a bag.

"Sorry I'm late, I couldn't find the bag because it got mixed with the other supplies for the trip." Brace said, handing the bag over to Zack. Zack looked at it curiously, wondering what the clothes were. When he reached in, he pulled out what appeared to be a few different pieces of clothing. He laid each one onto the bed as he examined each one closely. As he examined it, there appeared to be a tan jacket, a red shirt, and two black gloves that didn't have fingers, but had a different hole each finger.

"I hope you like them, I couldn't really think of anything else you would like." Brace said, a bit worried about how he would react. Zack looked back at her with a smile, already making Brace feeling better.

"I like them." Zack said, putting on his shirt already. He then quickly put on his gloves, followed by his jacket. The jacket didn't have any actual zipper or buttons, but it was still fine. Zack squeezed his fingers as he got a feel for his new gloves, noticing how they only go down to the bare wrists of his hands.

"I'm glad you like them, it took me forever to find everything." Brace said, happily. They both looked at the door curiously as they heard it open, seeing Matsu walking in.

"Hey Brace? What time are we..." Matsu paused as he saw Zack up with the new clothes. "Hey man! How's it been?" Matsu said, walking in the room. Zack smiled as he gave a thumbs up.

"I feel gre..." Zack started, before grunting at the pain he was feeling on his shoulder, rubbing it to ease it. Matsu and Brace looked at him worriedly, wondering if he was alright.

"Zack? Are you ok?" Brace asked. Zack looked back with a less depressing face, not wanting them to worry.

"Yeah...it's nothing. I feel just fine." Zack said, shaking his shoulders a bit around, trying to ease the pain.

"Well I still don't know if you should stress yourself like this. You were pretty beaten up when we found you." Brace said worriedly. Zack was going to reply to something, but started to remember what Jeris was saying earlier about Matsu's home being in trouble. And not wanting to cause any more problems, decided that it would be best for him to just stick to the plan.

"No really guys, I feel fine. Besides, I doubt there's anything we'll have to worry about, right? I mean, it's only two towns over."

Zack said, trying to prove that he was alright. Brace was able to tell that something was wrong about the situation, but knowing Zack he usually had a good reason, and things like that he usually tends to keep to himself. She looked outside again, wondering what they should do today since they were going to wait till tomorrow before taking the tram. She smiled as she had an idea.

"Hey I know!" Brace said cheerfully, catching Zack's and Matsu 's attention. "Zack, I got the perfect idea for you. You should get a D. weapon." Brace said happily, causing Zack to look at her confused.

"What's a D. weapon?"

"Weapons that represent the different deities of each mystical creatures within the weapon. They're made from elemental blacksmiths who harness the power of each bracelet's deity into the shape of a bracelet." Brace said.

"Maybe if you're lucky, you could get an Elemental B…" Matsu started, before being cut off by Brace again.

" Matsu , you know just as well as I do the chances of that are very unlikely." Brace said, looking at him a bit irritated. Zack was even more confused now as to what Matsu was going to say, and what Brace interrupted him for.

"What's unlikely?" Zack asked.

"He's talking about Elemental Burst. Rarely, within each bracelet, combined with that of a similar weapon, not only does the weapon change, but the user of the bracelet takes on a completely different form themselves." Brace replied. Zack looked really surprised and excited, looking down at his bracelet, wondering if his bracelet has anything like what she just said. I could have an actual deity in here? Zack asked himself in his head.

"Don't get really excited Zack." Brace said, seeing and knowing what he was thinking to himself. "Chances of that happening are very unlikely. And the problem is that it takes a lot of energy just to sustain it. In some cases, it could even kill you!" Zack's expression changed to a bit of depression as he looked back at the bracelet. He had no idea these bracelets took a large amount of energy to sustain. But now that he thought of it, he has been feeling somewhat drowsy ever since he first used his bracelet. His energy recovered from time to time, but it always felt like it was sucking something out of him, just to use it.

"I see…" Zack said, a little upsettingly. Brace was starting to feel a bit sorry for him, noticing how he got worked up for nothing.

"Ahh, don't sweat it Zack. Lots of people can't use it, even those who possess one." Brace said, trying to cheer him up. "But there is also something else I should probably add." Brace said, starting to get a curious look from Zack. "There are five different levels of an Elemental Burst. Each one has a different form than the last, getting stronger and stronger as well."

"Ah cool, just like Poke'mon." Zack said. Brace and Matsu looked at him confused.

"What's Poke'mon?" Matsu asked. Zack felt a sweat drop behind him, remembering this world is completely different from that of his world.

"Uh…never mind. Anyway, so where can we find these blacksmith guys?" Zack asked.

"In the middle of the town. They tend to work better where more light is, and therefore prefer to have the sun shining on them as they work." Matsu answered.

"Do you have one?" Zack asked. Matsu shook his head, causing Zack to look confused.

"Nope. Me and my brother prefer out fists instead of weapons. No good having a weapon that get's broken all the time." Matsu replied. Brace leaned up closer to Zack's ear.

"Translation, he always breaks his." Brace said, causing Zack and Brace to chuckle a bit.

"Hey!" Matsu shouted.

"Anyway, we should probably get going. If we don't hurry the shops will close." Brace said. Zack nodded in agreement.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." Zack said, as the three of them started heading out the door. As the three of them traveled, Zack looked around curiously, looking at the interesting stuff they had in the town. Each thing he looked at looked more interesting then the last one. He found it weird how a town with such different life styles could have different things. Like the windows for instance, they weren't just clear or white. They were made of different colored glass ranging from red, green, blue, purple, yellow, and the obviously most common, white. As if reading his mind, Brace answered the question he was about to ask, seeing him look at each window differently.

"It's a symbol of the elements." Brace said. Zack looked back as they continued to walk. "The colors represent that of the elements, so it's kind of a tradition to have the color of the element."

"Huh." Zack curiously replied, looking again. He noticed how the yellow and the whites ones looked similar, but couldn't tell which was which. "What about the yellow and white windows? Which elements are they?"

"Ah, a lot of people get confused with that one sometimes. The yellow one is a wind one." Matsu started, giving his explanation. "The yellow one used to be a green one, where the earth one was brown. But about a couple hundred years ago, people found a way to control other earth related things like plants." Zack started to have a flash back about how he used the vines to capture Zack and Brace a few days ago. "Because of that, people were having an argument about what the color really should be, and to make sure no violence broke out, they held a vote. In the end, majority vote ended up with green instead, and so the wind was switched to yellow as a color. Even though the color of the wind bracelets are green, the windows are still yellow." Matsu said.

Even though Zack didn't show it, he grew a huge headache just trying to remember the order of what color came first. But as they walked closer to the center, something caught his eye from behind him. As he looked, he saw another person in a dark cloak, much resemblance to Leneth's, pointing his finger back for him to come to him. While Matsu and Brace continued talking, walking to the center of town, Zack stopped as he looked around him, wondering who he was pointing too. When he looked back at the stranger, he pointed to himself curiously as he saw the stranger nod as a reply, going back around the corner. Brace stopped as she looked back at Zack, who appeared to be looking in the opposite direction.

"Hey Zack, what's wrong?" Brace asked. Zack continued looking in the same direction for a few seconds before looking back at Brace.

"I uh...I'm going to check out something, I'll be right back." Zack said, who started to run to the corner of the street.

"Are you going to be ok?" Brace yelled to him, wondering what was going on.

"Yeah I'll be fine. I'll catch up with you two later." Zack replied, waving back to them as he ran. Brace just sighed, as she continued walking back to the center of town. As Zack turned into the corner, he saw the stranger leaning up against the wall, his hands against his head. The guy was only about half a foot taller than Zack.

"Uh...can I help you?" Zack asked. The stranger just chuckled as he looked back at Zack. Zack's eyes widened as he saw it wasn't Leneth. As he looked, he saw the stranger had a pair of dark violet eyes, and white hair.

"I noticed your battle the other day." He said. Zack's eyes widened, not knowing that someone was watching him the entire time during the battle. "I must admit, you did pretty well for yourself in the end." Zack just grinned.

"Yeah, it was tough, but I managed to pull myself up from it."

"Is that before or after you collapsed to the ground losing conscious?" The stranger asked. Zack put his head down in shame, seeing how the stranger saw the whole thing and knew how it came out. He looked back curiously though as he heard him chuckle. "I gotta admit, with more practice, you could even master one of those Elemental Modes." Zack looked at him confusingly, which the stranger noticed. "I'm sorry, I believe your familiar with the term "Elemental Burst"?" The stranger asked.

"Yeah, awesome power. It's too bad it takes a lot of it out of you." Zack said, a bit disappointed. He looked back though as he heard the stranger chuckling.

"True, most cases it does require power to use that form. But the way many Kaise do it is by using this." Zack looked as the stranger held out what appeared to be a gem, much similar to the fire gem on Zack's bracelet, but it was completely black.

"What is it?"

"It's just another type of gem, much like any other. But unlike others, this will let you take full control of an Elemental Mode without putting much effort into it, or losing your energy." The stranger replied, as he flipped the gem to Zack, who caught it in both his hands. Zack was quite stunned in amazement. A simple gem like this can really make me go into a Elemental Burst? Zack thought to himself. Zack looked back at the stranger confusingly though for a minute.

"What's the catch?" Zack asked, knowing that nothing is usually free. The stranger just chuckled again.

"Nothing. I heard about your little adventure speech. Moving and all, but I also got to admit that your speech alone won't be enough." Zack looked back questionably at it for a minute before remembering something.

"Wait, can I even have this on? I think there's only one socket on this bracelet." Zack said, looking back at his bracelet.

"You might wanna look again." The stranger said, grabbing his bracelet. Zack looked at it confused for a second before he noticed it started to glow brightly. Within a few seconds, not only was there a slot that the fire gem was in, but another one that was right below it.

"Whoa...How did you do that?" Zack asked a bit shocked.

"A Kaise can accomplish anything. But I must warn you, aside from keeping that thing out of view, you should probably only use it in most needed of cases." The stranger added, followed by the strange look Zack gave him.

"Why?"

"Because that's a one of a kind item. And what do you suppose will happen when people find out your the only one with it?" Zack looked back again as he decided to put the gem back into his pocket. He knew that the stranger had a pont, and the more poeple who know will probably increase the chance of people who want to take it from him. Zack smiled as he looked back.

"Thanks." Zack said. He flinched a bit as he looked back, hearing Brace yelling behind him.

"Zack! What's taking you so long?" Brace asked.

"Oh I was just talking to..." Zack started as he looked back. But, to his surprise, the stranger from earlier was gone. Zack looked around for a second, wondering what the heck that was about. Unable to see anything, he just shrugged it off as he thought the guy left. "Huh...never mind then." Zack replied. He squealed a bit as Brace started pulling him by his wrist. "Gah! What are you doing?"

"You been taking forever. Now let's go!" Brace shouted, impatiently. Unknown to either of them though, the gem in Zack's pocket started to glow a strange aura of black around it, as two shining yellow eyes appeared from it.

"Heh heh heh...It'll be fun Zack, I promise..." Jeris said, as he started to laugh to himself.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the delay. I have been studying hard for school and my dad has been hogging the only computer at my house with Microsoft word. Anyway, please enjoy this exciting, and first time ever, update that has more than SIX THOUSAND WORDS as an apology :).**

**Episode 6: Em'Bracing One's Deity**

As the three of them finally entered the central district of the town, they looked around as they saw many different people, all buying things from items, to simply examining each other's bracelet. Zack was really interested into how many people he actually did see that had bracelets. He thought it was pretty uncommon for people to have bracelets, but seeing the many people who had one he was starting to think otherwise. He stopped though as he saw Brace and Matsu stop at a building in the area. From the look of it, it appeared to have pictures of different gems and weapons on the main heading of the building, but no actual writing.

"Is this the place we're looking for?" Zack asked, not knowing where they were. He looked as Brace nodded happily.

"Yup, this is it." She replied. Zack blinked curiously as he continued looking at the building. He had no idea as to what to expect from a building like this, and even less as to what weapons here were like. He sighed as he walked into the store with the others, seeing how they already left inside. But when he entered, he looked around confusedly, seeing how there were only hilts of weapons and no actual blades or mallets to the hilts.

"Um..." Zack started, looking around confused. Brace and Matsu turned around, seeing how Zack was just standing there with a confused expression on his face.

"Something wrong?" Matsu asked.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind for "weapons". Where are the actual blades and such?" Matsu and Brace looked at each other confuse before looking back at Zack.

"What are you talking about? We don't use actual blades for our weapons." Brace replied.

"Then what point is there to have a weapon shop if there isn't even any weapon, and just the hilt?"

"You see." Brace said, going to the counter. The only thing at the counter at the time appeared to be a silver glass bell, and no one else. She grabbed the hilt of it before looking back at Zack. "You might feel a little bit weird at first." Brace said.

"What the heck is that suppose to mean?" Zack asked. His answer came to him as Brace began to shake the bell. At first, nothing happened and everything was the same it was as usual. Then, to his surprise, he notice the wind in the building begin to pick up. Within seconds, he gasped as he saw he was beginning to fade, more and more until there would be nothing left of him. He looked back at Matsu and Brace, wondering if they were worried about the situation as well. But to his surprise, they just smiled as they had finally completely disappeared. He looked back at his hands as he began to feel light headed. Then everything went blank as he felt nothing, and he completely disappeared, and worse yet, feeling like he never existed.

When his body finally began to appear again, he gasped as he fell to his knees, putting one of his hands over his stomachs. He felt Brace's hand over his shoulder though as he began to feel like heaving, taking quick second large breaths every now and then, shaking like his stomach was going to explode.

"Zack! Just relax." Brace said, trying to comfort him. Zack looked at her, a bit happy she was trying to comfort him, until he threw his hand over his mouth, knowing he was about to barf. Brace quickly jumped up and took a step back as she saw the disgusting pile of vomit being poured out from Zack's mouth. Zack just continued breathing as he felt Brace's hand on his shoulders again. After a few seconds without puking, he breathed heavily as he slowly got up, wobbling a bit at first as Brace pulled his arm over her shoulder, helping him keep his balance.

"S-Sorry..." He said, apologizing for the floor. Now that he paid more attention, he was in a completely different place. There was darkness everywhere, except for the floor that was white, and as he looked more closely, he saw what some strange guy smashing his hammer on the hilt of a sword on an anvil. As the stranger looked up, he lifted the helmet that protected his face from the sparks that could've gotten into his eyes.

"If your going to puke, do it somewhere else away from my work." The guy said,

as he put the hammer and the hilt away.

"Sorry. He's not from around here and isn't use to teleporting." Brace said, looking back at Zack who was still breathing heavily. The stranger looked back at Zack questionably, wondering how someone couldn't be used to teleporting. He then paid close attention to Zack's wrist, as he noticed he was wearing a bracelet. Even though he wasn't surprised, he found it confusing as to how someone who even had a bracelet could puke after. Nonetheless though, he sighed as he walked over to the two. Zack noticed as he got closer that he appeared to be taller by about two feet. The stranger looked into Zack's half open yet queasy eyes as he continued to stare.

"So are you a customer, or a vomiter?" The stranger asked, still mad about the puke on the floor. Zack breathed for a few more seconds before he took his hands off of Brace, trying to get to his balance. Brace looked at him worriedly, as he slouched a bit while he stood.

"I guess I'm a customer." Zack replied. The stranger just stared at him for a few more seconds before raising his hand as a friendly gesture.

"Well then, I suppose welcome." The stranger said. Zack grinned a bit as he shook the strangers hand again.

"Thanks." Zack's eyes widened though as he realized that someone was missing. "Wait, where's Matsu ?" Zack said, worried that he was somewhere terrible, or even worse, stuck between dimensions.

"I'm over here dude." Matsu replied. As Zack looked, his eyes went wider as he saw Matsu standing near a rack of hilts, looking at each different design than the last. "Pretty interesting stuff here I say." Matsu said, admiring the collection.

"Will someone tell me what the big deal is over these dumb hilts? What's the point of having them if there aren't any attachments for weapons?" Zack asked, annoyed with the fact that there was nothing but hilts. The shopkeeper looked at him even more confused than before, not knowing how he couldn't understand their use.

"You really aren't from around here, are you?" The shopkeeper asked. Zack shook his head with a no.

"She told you that before. She really wasn't bluffing." Zack replied. The shopkeeper just sighed as he looked back at Matsu .

"Show him how it works." He yelled so that Matsu could hear him. Matsu nodded as he grabbed the hilt of one of the weapons. He put both his hands on it as he stared straight at it. Zack looked a bit confused before he saw what happened next. The entire weapon was glowing a bright light as it grew. The taller it got, the tip of it began to spread out. After a few seconds, the hilt had completely turned into a giant double-sided mallet. On the rims of it there appeared to be a metal casing, surrounded by spikes.

"Awesome!" Zack yelled surprised. Matsu grinned as he raised the giant mallet, then brought it back down at full force. The ground shook violently as cracks in the ground began to form, continuing to grow until it was a foot away from Brace's, Zack's, and the shopkeeper's feet.

"Still think there stupid?" Matsu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hell no! Let me try." Zack said, as raising his hands to catch. He was expecting Matsu to throw a different hilt to him that was still on the wall. But instead, he threw the giant sized mallet, which caused Zack to freak out. But as it got closer, it began to glow again as it shrunk back down. By the time Zack caught it, it reverted into a hilt again.

"Wow…"

"That's the power of the hilts. They aren't like regular weapons. The outcome of the weapon is determined by the user's bracelet." The shopkeeper said, looking back at Zack.  
"All you have to do is concentrate. Just focus your energy into the hilt, and it will transform on its own." The shopkeeper said, taking a step back to give Zack space.

Zack nodded as he grabbed the hilt with both hands. He stared at the hilt, wondering what it would turn out as after it transformed. But after waiting a few seconds, nothing happened. He squeezed on the hilt tighter, thinking he wasn't squeezing it tight enough. Still nothing. Getting a bit impatient, he grunted as he squeezed as hard as he could, shaking his hand from the amount of pressure he was putting on the bracelet, holding his breath as well. He gasped as he finally stopped for a moment, trying to catch his breath. The shopkeeper raised his eyes a bit confused, unable to believe what he just saw.

"Are you even from this world?" The shopkeeper asked.

"We were putting a big emphasis on "from" when we said that I'm not from this place." Zack said, holding the hilt with one hand only. The stranger rubbed his chin, thinking about what it was that Zack said. He then looked back at the bracelet, wondering how he couldn't get his bracelet to work, even if he was from a different world.

"Let me see your bracelet." The shopkeeper said. Zack and the others looked a bit curiously as Zack held his bracelet towards the stranger. The stranger grabbed his arm as he looked on the design of it, looking all around it from the edges, the sides, and the jewel on it. Zack blinked confusedly as he saw the stranger continuing to look, as if in a trance by the bracelet. He got even more confused as he saw the stranger's eyes widening a bit, as if something was really surprising or really shocking. After a few more seconds he let go of his wrist, returning towards the anvil.

"So…what's going on then?" Zack asked.

"Come over here." He commanded. Zack looked at the other two a bit curiously before looking back at the stranger. He shrugged to himself as he started walking over to the stranger. "Put your hand on the anvil." Zack blinked confusingly for a moment before doing as the stranger said. His eyes widened though as latches appeared out of nowhere, on both ends of the bracelet, and making it impossible for Zack to remove.

"What's going on?" Zack yelled, trying to pull his arm through the latches.

"Just hold still." As Zack looked, he grew a completely nervous look as he saw the shopkeeper with a blade that had a green glow around it.

"W-What are you doing?" Zack nervously asked, feeling sweat dropping behind his head.

"Either you hold still or your arm is going to come off." The stranger said, raising his sword. Zack's eyes widened as it came down with the shopkeeper's full force. Right when it was mere inches from the bracelet, fire burst from the bracelet itself as it was enveloped by a burning fiery aura, all around the bracelet within a sphere. Zack could see sparks fly as the sword broke on impact with the bracelet. He then saw that the fire burned the latches off, freeing his arm. He quickly tugged away and jumped back, not wanting the stranger to try again.

"What the hell was that?!" Zack stammered. He couldn't tell what was more confusing, that the bracelet enveloped in flames on its own, or why the shopkeeper was trying to cut the bracelet to begin with. He noticed a surprised look on the shopkeepers face as he saw the bracelet slowly begin to dim before the aura dissipated.

"I never would've expected it even for myself." The shopkeeper said. Brace and Matsu looked at each other confused before looking back at the shopkeeper.

"What was unexpected?" Matsu asked.

"That bracelet's deity…" He started, looking more and more closely with each passing second. "It's...It's not a commune." Zack looked back curiously as he heard Brace gasp a little.

"What's a commune?"

"Well, remember the other day when I explained how each bracelet has a different deity?" Brace asked.

"Umm...yeah?"

"Well, a commune is an original of the deities. However, very rarely will someone have a bracelet that has a deity that isn't one of the original six. In your case, you have something else than a dragon in your bracelet." Zack's eyes widened a bit as he looked down at the bracelet. The day for him has just kept getting weirder and weirder. First he finds out Kelika is under attack, then he meets some stranger that gives him a weird stone, then he throws up because he teleported for the first time in his life, then he realizes his bracelet isn't normal.

"Well if my bracelet isn't a commune thing, what the hell is it?" Zack asked, looking at it, holding it above his head.

"I don't know to be honest. Most non-commune bracelets are usually just earth or water deities. This is the first time in over a hundred years that we've seen a different deity in a fire bracelet." The shopkeeper said, looking at the gem of the bracelet. Zack looked at him a bit shocked.

"Over a hundred years?!" Zack stammered. He looked back at the bracelet again. Normally, he'd think something different would actually be a cool thing, but in a world like this it was making him think otherwise.

"Well why would Zack get a different bracelet?" Matsu said, looking at it closer. "Zack, where did you..." Matsu started, before being interrupted by the sudden rumble that was moving the ground. The four of them tried to maintain balance as the ground trembled violently. Zack looked around, wondering what was causing the ground to shake so violently, but he couldn't see anything else than what he had already seen before.

"What's going on?" Zack asked, a bit surprised.

"Something from the outside must be going on. It's affecting this world as well." Brace said. Zack looked curiously as Brace was digging through her pockets. He had no idea what she was looking for before he grew a bit nervous, pulling out a crystal bell much like the one they used to get into this area to begin with.

"W-What are you doing?" Zack asked nervously.

"Sorry Zack, but we got to get out of here. If the crystal bell at the shop is destroyed, we'll be stuck here forever." Brace said, as she began to shake it. As before, there was nothing for a few seconds until the three of them started to fade bit by bit. Zack's eyes widened though as he looked back at the shopkeeper, who was just standing there as he watched the other three fade away.

"Wait! Hey old dude, grab onto my hand!" Zack yelled, reaching his hands out. He couldn't walk closer as he could barely feel his own legs. He looked strangely as the shopkeeper just smiled.

"Relax, this is my realm. I no more than one way to leave." The guy said, as Zack and the others had finally faded away.

Zack gasped as he felt himself falling to the ground. He breathed heavily as he did before, but this time his stomach felt a little bit better than it did before. Luckily, he didn't feel like he was going to puke this time around, although his vision was still a bit blurry. He looked around the store. It seemed weird to him though. Even though his vision was blurry, he knew something was wrong. To looked to the side though as he felt Brace lifting his arm around her head, and helping him to the ground. As Brace looked back, she could see a small shade of white everywhere around his eyes, able to tell that his vision was blurry.

"Nice to see you didn't throw up this time around." Brace said jokingly. The two of them just chuckled a bit until they heard an explosion. Zack couldn't tell what it was that was going on, but he could see fire spreading around. If it wasn't for the fact there were red glowing things around, it was definitely the smoke that assured him. His vision finally started to clear more as he tried to focus more on the things around them. Brace looked at him as he shook his head a bit, rubbing his eyes with his fingers to see better. She let go of his arm as he gave the ok, letting her know he could finally stand.

"Are you sure you'll be ok?" Brace asked, worried about his uneasiness with teleporting, and the battle he had the other day.

"Yeah I'll be f..." Zack started. But as he saw behind her, his eyes widened as he saw the entire building they were in was destroyed. There was fire on other buildings as well, as the sky filled with smoke and tinder. "What the? What the heck is going on?" Zack asked, shocked at the sudden environments. He looked behind him though as he heard footsteps. He saw Matsu standing there with a more serious look than usual.

"Brace, we got to go now. The village is under siege." Matsu warned. Brace gave him a confused look as a reply.

"Under siege? By who?" Brace asked. Before Matsu could answer, they all turned around as they heard the harsh whistling of something flinging towards them. When they looked, they saw what appeared to be a giant boulder covered in fire, heading straight for them. Zack ran in front of the two, aiming his hands at it.

"I got this. Don't wor..." Zack started. But as he saw the boulder, he started having a flash back from the incident seven years ago. His heart froze in fear from the sudden sight of the giant boulder, roughly the same size as the one that crashed into his car. Zack just stood there with his eyes wide open, completely blank in fear. He couldn't get his body to respond, even if he wanted. Zack and Matsu just looked at Zack, worried about why he froze all of the sudden.

"Zack! Snap out of it!" Brace shouted. But her yelling didn't even phase Zack as he just continued to stare at the burning boulder that got closer and larger in size. Matsu immediately pushed Zack behind them, and clapped both his hands together.

"Stand back!" Matsu shouted. He then smashed his fists into the ground. Simultaneously, a large stone wall began to form in front of the three of them. It was at least twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. The giant boulder finally collapsed into the giant structure with great force, causing debris from the boulder to fly everywhere. Matsu grunted as he continued holding the entire blast from the wall, losing energy from protecting the three of them. With a final sigh, he lifted his hands from the ground, rubbing them a bit from the soreness.

"Are you ok?" Brace asked.

"Yeah, I'm f..." Matsu started. But as he turned around, thinking Brace was talking to him, he felt his sweat drop as he saw Brace looking at Zack worriedly. "Hey!"

"Zack! Wake up!" Brace said, shaking him a bit. He was still in the zombie like state he was in, unable to tell respond in anyway. After a few seconds, he finally blinked as he looked around, seeing Brace right in front of him.

"W-What happened?" Zack asked, wondering where the giant flaming boulder went.

"You tell us dude!" Matsu yelled, a bit angry that Zack's freezing almost got them killed. "One minute you say you're going to destroy the thing, next thing we know you're frozen as a statue!" Zack looked at him a bit confused before he remembered twhat just happened. He rubbed the back of his head, wondering how he would explain things to his friends.

"Look... Let's just say I'd like to keep that stuff to myself, ok?" Zack mentioned. Before Matsu could even protest, the three of them looked as they heard something coming. As they looked, they saw what appeared to be three different soldiers, all with a strange helmet that covered their head from the eyes and above. Only their mouths' were uncovered. They also had strange black capes on their backs as well, with a weird emblem on it. The emblem seemed to be in the form of some strange demonic hand.

"Who are those guys?" Zack asked.

"S-S-Shadow knights!" Brace said, shocked. Zack looked at her somewhat curious and surprised.

"Shadow knights?"

"They're descendants of the dark Balance. No one has seen them since the war a thousand years ago!" Brace said, running behind Zack. Zack looked at her curiously before looking back at the knights. He took a stance, ready for anything, as he saw the others walking towards them.

"You there! Red head!" One of the knights said, pointing a sword at him. The blade itself was completely black, and had some strange purple aura resonating around it.

"My name is Zack!" He replied.

"We will give you one chance only. Surrender that girl to us and we'll spare your pathetic lives!" The knight said, as the other two knights took out their blades.

"Like hell I will!" Zack said, stretching one of his arms out in front of Brace, letting the both of them know that he wasn't about to surrender Brace so willingly.

"Hmph, fool." When the knight swung his blade, Zack's eyes widened as he saw a black materialized blast heading straight for them. He could feel the ground shake as the blast cut across it, heading towards Zack and Brace. Zack took no hesitation this time in order to blast it back with his bracelet. The knight, who wasn't expecting it, was surprised that Zack managed to destroy the blast that came towards him.

"So, you're a user as well, huh? Not bad, even though I wasn't even trying." The knight said. He repeated his attack as the blast came at Zack, but with a much deadlier force of power. Zack tried to blast it again, hoping to end in the same results. But to his shock, his fire blasting didn't even seem to phase through it as he black wave just cut through it, heading straight for the two. Zack concentrated the fire to his arms as he covered himself around them, ready to take the brunt of the attack. He screamed a bit as he could feel the wave cutting against his skin, but unable to cut through Zack. Zack then managed to actually grab the wave, and sent it flying into the sky. When it was out of sight, there was an explosion that could be seen in it.

"Zack!" Brace said worriedly. As she looked, she saw the sides of his arms bleeding from where the blade cut him. He breathed heavily as he retook his original stance from before.

"Interesting. I've never seen anyone able to actually grab the blast wave, let alone block it themselves." The knight said, surprised.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Zack replied, concentrating his energy into his hands. At first, Zack managed to get the fire on his hands ready, concentrating for the blast. But Zack stuttered a bit, feeling immense pain into his shoulders. He dropped to one of his knees as he rubbed his shoulders, grunting.

"Zack! You can't fight them. You haven't fully healed from the fight!" Brace said, worriedly. Damn it, I doubt the teleporting from earlier is helping either. Zack thought to himself, looking back at the three knights.

"You should listen to the girl. A warrior can't fight if they can't even lift a blade." The knight said, holding his sword in front of himself. "A knight knows how to wield a blade, but a warrior knows how to fight as long as they can wield that blade. You on the other hand, can't even seem to use much energy. So I'll make you one last final offer: Surrender the girl, or die!" The knight shouted. Zack just breathed a bit heavily from the energy he just wasted, trying to form an attack. He trembled a bit as he made his way back to his feet, taking a stand.

"And I told you before, I'm not going!" Zack yelled back.

"Fool. Knights, unsheathe your blades!" The knight said. The other two did as they were told, taking out identical blades as well. "Prepare to strike! Take aim!" The three knights then shifted their blade, sideways.

"Zack, just get out of here. I'll be fine, I promise." Brace said, worried about Zack.

"Tch, no offense Brace but if you don't even like fighting, considering what these guys would do to you I doubt it." Zack said, not about to give up.

"And die!" The knight yelled. Simultaneously, each of the knights shot a black wave towards Zack, with the side ones getting closer to the middle one. When they touched, each of them morphed into a giant single blade, making it nearly impossible for Zack to block in his given condition. Suddenly, a massive stone wall rose from the ground in front of them, blocking off the attack. When everyone looked, they saw Matsu with his hands to the ground. He appeared to have exhausted a lot of energy in that blast, as he seemed to be sweating a lot and breathing heavily.

"You didn't...forget about me...did ya?" Matsu said, taking a breath in between every few words. Zack and Brace smiled as they saw Matsu just saved them.

"Where were you earlier?!" Zack stammered. "You could've helped out earlier you know?"

"Be grateful I even helped you at all!" Matsu shouted back. Brace felt a sweat drop as the two bickered. "Besides, I was waiting for them to use that attack. Look at them now." Matsu said. Zack and Brace looked back curiously to see the three knights breathing a bit heavily.

"Why are the knights exhausted?" Zack asked, confused.

"It's simple for us to shoot a blast towards our targets. But it takes a large drain of energy to combine our blasts." One of the other knights' replied.

"Sweet! At least at this low power we can take 'em now!" Zack said, sounding confident.

"You think you can match with us now? We haven't even been trying!" Zack, Matsu, and Brace looked a bit shocked as they saw the three knights instantly vanished.

"What the? Where'd they go?" Zack asked, looking all around. Matsu yelled in pain a bit as he was suddenly punched on the side of his face, sending him straight into a wall a few feet over. As Zack and Brace looked, they saw one of the knight's who just stood there, his arm still out in a punching position. Zack turned around though as he heard Brace scream. When he looked back, one of the knights' were holding her with one hand holding her arm, and another arm around her neck.

"Let her go!" Zack shouted, rushing towards them. Zack's eyes widened though as a fist punched right into his stomach. Everything felt like it was going in slow motion as Zack saw the knight instantly appear in front of him. Like Matsu, Zack was thrust to a wall, but not breaking through it like Matsu. Before his feet could even touch the ground, the same knight pinned him by the neck with his hand, against the wall. Zack grunted as he grabbed the knight's hand as he attempted to pull it off of him, but to no use.

"Now do you get it?" The knight who was holding Brace said. "Our strength is never equal. We've trained for over a thousand years, and there's no way a couple of kids are going to get in our way!" Brace just continued to struggle to break free from the knight.

"Let go!" Brace shouted. She moved her head down as far as possible, then, as hard as she could, smacked the back of her head against the knight's head. The knight lost his grip as he covered his nose which Brace just smacked into. "Zack!" Brace said worriedly, running over to help him. Before she could even get half way towards them though, the stranger reappeared right in front of her. Zack's and Brace's eyes widened as they knew they were not dealing with ordinary people. The knight grunted as he slapped against Brace's face fiercely with the back of his hand, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Ignorant wench!" The knight replied.

"Don't you dare hurt her!" Zack yelled in fierce anger. Suddenly, everyone looked as they saw Zack's bracelet beginning to glow an ominous yellowish-orange light. The knight who was holding him lost his grip in fear, as he took a few steps back. "W-What the heck is going on?" Zack asked, confused. By this time, Matsu finally managed to push the rubble off of him, and stood, a bit exhaustingly. His eyes widened as well as he saw Zack's bracelet glowing as well.

"H-His bracelet..." One of the other knights stuttered. Zack's eyes went wide in shock though as his pain had finally lifted, and his sore bones were completely healed. He felt like he didn't even have any feeling at all at this time. He glared back at the knights who attacked them earlier, angered by the fact they didn't care who they hurt. With immense speed, Zack suddenly reappeared, slamming one of the knights to the wall he was slammed into.

"Why you..." One of the knights shouted, as he grabbed his sword again. Before he could even take it out though, Zack shot an immense blast straight towards the knight, sending hi flying through the ruined buildings in the town. Zack smirked for a bit, seeing how everything was better, before he glared back at the knight who smacked Brace.

"Interesting power. But I wonder how long you can sustain it." The knight said, instantly vanishing. Zack looked all around, thinking that he was going to attack from somewhere. But after a few seconds, nothing happened and he knew the knight had left by then. He suddenly remembered Matsu and Brace, who were attacked as well. He ran over to Brace first, a bit worried as to if she was ok.

"Hey Brace? You alright?" Zack asked. Brace just continued to look at him for a few seconds before nodding. They looked back as they heard Matsu walking towards them.

"Man Zack, that was awesome! How'd you pull off all those cool stunts?" Matsu asked, impressed. Zack just grew a confused look as he looked at the bracelet, still shinning.

"I don't know. This thing just started up on it's..." Zack started , before the three of them heard footsteps again. As they looked, they could see many more different soldiers walking in files ion the street, heading towards them.

"Oh man, how many are there?" Matsu complained. At that moment, Zack's bracelet had finally stopped shinning, and turned back to normal. Zack's eyes went blank as he felt a large amount of energy from him was just drained. He collapsed to his knees as he started to breath heavily again, causing the others to look worried.

"Zack!" Brace and Matsu said worriedly.

"I'm...fine...although I don't think I'll be able to pull that off again." Zack said, worriedly.

"It's ok, we can run from here." Brace said, helping Zack to his feet. "We should be able to lose them if we get to the other side of town."

"Ok, then let's go." Zack said, as the three of them started running out of town. Meanwhile, the army of knights that were walking down the street all stopped, as they saw the three running. The knights in the middle cleared the way as a strange robbed man moved to the front, riding a strange black horse. He smirked as he looked at the three running, knowing it was pointless. At that moment, the knight who escaped earlier reappeared in front of the strange robbed man, kneeling in respect.

"Did you play your part?" The stranger asked. The knight nodded.

"Yes sir, we managed to get him to start using his burst mode. Although, he hadn't really reached up to a first level of it yet." The knight said, a bit concerned.

"It matters not. After all, we only need him to know he can burst for our plan to go." The stranger said, chuckling. "And as for you..." He started, raising his hand in front of the knight. The knight began to stare in complete fear.

"W-W-Wait sir! I did what you ordered!" The knight said, panicking.

"We have no place in this army for cowards." A large black aura started to materlize in the stranger's hand in the shape of a flame. Without hesitation, he blasted the burning black flame, completely incinerating the knight into. All that was seen after the blast was a pile of ash and cinder as it started to blow away with the breeze of the wind. The robed man looked back at the direction that Zack and the others had ran.

"Shall I give the order to charge sir?" One of the knights asked, bowing in respect. The robed figure just shook his head, giving a no.

"That won't be necessary soldier. We just needed to give them the warning. Now that they know we're after them, it's a matter of time before he returns her to her home." The man pulled his hand out in front of his face. As he focused on the palm, a black fire began to grow from it. It illuminated a purplish vision, as it showed Zack and the others who were running away. As he looked, the sight shifted to Brace's face, seeing how she kept running for her life, just like the others. "And soon, that girl will bring us to the sky...Heh heh..." The man said, as he began to chuckle.

The three of them didn't even bother to turn around, not wanting to see if they were being chased. They just kept running for their lives, and didn't plan to stop until they were out of the town. Each of them had something on their minds at the time. Zack was really confused about why an army was attacking the town, and what confused him more is how he gained so much energy, and grew exhausted from it. It's not every day he get's a bracelet that starts glowing and fills one with energy, and especially not any day for Zack until recently. Matsu was worried about where the army actually came from. He also wanted to know how they knew he was from a different world. He hadn't met anyone other than Brace and Matsu that he really got to know, and the fact that smoke filled the air and fire was burning everywhere, there was no way he'd have a second shadow out. Based on the direction that they came from, it was the same direction as Matsu's home town, which means they might have attacked the village as well. He was especially worried about whether or not his brother was alright. And Brace was the most concerned, wondering how they found her so fast. She knew that the army was for her and for her alone, yet she had no idea how they managed to find her. All she did know is that she had to return home, where she would be safe from harm, and the dark Balance. As a matter of fact, it wasn't just a matter of returning Brace back home, now that Zack realizes. He needed to get Matsu and himself there too. If it's as strong as Brace said it was, her home was the only place where the three would find safety, anywhere in this world…


	7. Chapter 7

**Episode 7: Em'bracing Hope**

It had been probably twenty minutes since the three were attacked by Shadow Knights. They had been running for who knows how long. By this time, the group had finally managed to escape the city, and the ones that were after them. They had entered the city, which appeared to still be somewhat dark due to the smoke that filled the sky. After a while, they stopped for a moment to take a break. No matter what the army was capable of that was chasing them, they knew they had lost them...for now.

"Is everyone...alright?" Zack asked, breathing exhaustedly. Brace breathed heavily a bit before she replied.

"I'm fine...what about you Matsu?" Brace asked, seeing how he was resting on his back, breathing hard.

"Let's just say...rock and running...don't really go together..." Matsu said, wiping his head with his hand.

"I think we should...spend the night here." Brace said, looking around. Zack gave her a confused look.

"What?! That's practically suicide!" Zack stammered.

"Actually, we'll be completely fine...at least from the dark knights." Matsu relpied, looking around. Zack looked at him a bit confusingly.

"How is this suppose to be safer?"

"Remember the other day about the will-o-wisps? They have hatred over most things that are alive, but their biggest anger goes towards the dark knights. The dark knights would be swarmed if they went around here." Brace commented, leaning on a tree.

"Well... I guess. But if the will-o-wisps have hatred over all living things, won't they attack us too?!" Zack said, bringing up a point. Brace just shook her head, with a grin a bit.

"It's times like this, I'm glad I was born of a light balance." Brace said, pulling out her sleeves to reveal her bracelet. As she closed her eyes, the bracelet began to shine a bright white light. What was more interesting though, was that Brace's own veins were glowing with a white light. From the white silver crystal in the bracelet, a small ball of light dropped down, and went into the ground. Zack's eyes widened as he saw a strange white sphere growing around him, engulfing him, Matsu, Brace, and everything else within a twenty foot radius. Weird shining dots appeared to have evaporated from the ground as they descended up into the top of the sphere continuously.

"Woah..." Zack said, in amazement.

"Ohh..." Brace moaned, as she suddenly collapsed to her side.

"Brace!" Matsu and Zack shouted worriedly. Zack leaned her up in order to see if she was ok.

"Are you alright?" Zack asked, a bit worried. Brace winced a bit as she slowly opened her eyes, smiling a bit.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine." She said, stuttering a bit. "It takes alot of energy to form a barrier around more than one person, and that ten mile run we just had didn't help either." Brace said, as she pulled herself up into a sitting position against the tree. Zack looked back though as he saw that Matsu was looking out of the barrier. He seemed to be glaring at the empty forest in anger about something.

"Hey Matsu, what's wrong?" Zack asked.

"The army came from Kelika's direction. What if they already destroyed the city?" Matsu yelled, glaring back at the other two.

"Look, Matsu, I know it looks back but don't worry. I promise that everything will be fine." Brace said, sounding confident.

"Yeah. I mean we just took down three of the dark knights after all. I'm sure we can handle whatever else is..." Zack started, before Matsu grabbed him by the collar of his shirt harshly.

"Alright? Alright?!" Matsu stammered. "The hell we will be alright! We got our butts kicked, and they weren't even trying! If it wasn't for you and that weird light thing, we'd be dead!" Matsu shouted. Zack and Brace could easily tell that Matsu was more upset about the army attacking his home more than losing to the army, even if he didn't show it. Zack wondered what it felt like to have to worry about something. Starring at him sternly for a bit, Zack pushed Matsu off.

"You act like your home is already dead. At least you got to think about the slim chance that it is alive!" Zack shouted back. Brace and Matsu looked back at Zack a little curiously as Zack walked away, leaning against another tree.

"Zack, is there something wrong?" Brace asked, a bit concerned.

"He's acting like he has already lost his house. At least he gets to have a small hope that it's still alive!" Zack shouted. Brace looked at Zack a bit more curiously.

"What do you mean, "at least he gets too",?" Brace asked a bit curiously. Zack just turned his head to the side, not wanting to even look at her. "Zack, if something happened, you can tell us." Brace said, putting her arm on Zack's shoulder. Zack just looked at her hand for a second before he sighed, pushing it off of her as he stood.

"Thanks but no thanks. What happened in my past is long gone. And nothing is going to change it." Zack said, walking out of the portal. Brace and Matsu looked at Zack a bit worried as he just continued walking.

"Wait Zack! Get back in the portal! It's dangerous out there!" Brace said, worried.

"I said leave me alone!" He shouted, not even looking back at them as he disappeared into the dark night.

"Wait!" Brace said, about to run towards them. She was stopped though as Matsu laid his hand on his shoulder.

"Don't go out there Brace. Just give him some time." Matsu said, a bit calmer than before.

"But Zack..." Brace said, looking back in the dark woods.

"Trust me. I know he's stronger than he looks. He'll be fine." Matsu said, a bit confidently. Brace just sighed as she knew that Matsu was right. It would be dangerous for a pacifist to go into the woods during the night. But Zack remained on her mind a bit, worried as to whether or not he would be ok.

Zack just grunted to himself as he stomped off into the woods, his hands in his pockets. He actually envied Matsu for the fact that he gets to have hope, while Zack never could in the past. Hope didn't give him time to react when he saw the giant boulder crashing into the side of his car, and hope didn't stop Zack from making his own decisions in life.

He also pitied Matsu for not being glad about hope. Matsu acted as if he didn't have anything to hope for at all, while he appeared to be the one to have hope over everything. And yet, Matsu treated it as nothing more than garbage that didn't even have it's worth, and that's what angered Zack a bit. As he looked around his surroundings, he saw that he was near a giant lake, that cut him off from travling for about fifty yards, stretching about fourty feet as well. Zack traveled towards the lake, wanting to talk to at least someone he didn't care about. As his reflection grew, he saw that Jeris appeared to be floating a bit as a reflection.

"Someone's a bit moody today. I love the feeling." Jeris said, who appeared to simply have his eyes closed as he floated. Zack just glared at him.

"I wanna know something Jeris!" Zack yelled. Jeris raised an eye brow, a bit surprised that he was as angry as he was, although Jeris relished the feeling of anger.

"What's it now pipsqueak?"

"Did you have anything to do with the army that found us?" Zack asked. He grew even more angry than before as he just saw Jeris smirking.

"Maaaybe!" Jeris said, sarcastically a bit.

"Tell me what you did!" Zack shouted.

"I told them where you were, that's what." Jeris answered, causing Zack's eyes to widened. He couldn't believe that his other soul was actually betraying him as well. He knew that Jeris wasn't exactly what you would call the friendliest of types, but he never expected him to be the one that would try to kill him as well.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Zack stammered, blasting fire towards the lake. Steam evaporated from the last as the fire clashed. As the water began to still again, Jeris reformed.

"Hey, don't look at me. I don't like being in your body anymore than you do." Jeris replied.

"Then why kill me? Won't you get killed as well?!" Zack stammered. Jeris was about to protest something, but stopped as he left his mouth gapped open. He never really thought of the part where he could get killed as well. He had thought that he was safe for the time being, but didn't consider the fact that if Zack died too then maybe he would as well.

"Huh...you know I didn't even know about that." Jeris started, causing Zack to fall to the ground in regret about having an "evil" counterpart that wasn't really that smart.

"Then why did you even bother telling them?! Better yet, how did you tell them?" Zack asked, curious as to how he could if he was stuck in his body.

"Zack Zack Zack..." Jeris started, swaying his head with a grin and sarcastic disoppointment. "The world of darkness is always connected. I may be trapped in your body, but nothing keeps the darkness from talking to one another. It's like a whole nother dimension!" Jeris yelled in excitement.

"However..." Jeris started, causing Zack to raise an eyebrow. "Shadow specters like us don't get to..." Jeris started, before Zack interrupted.

"Woah woah woah..." Zack said, shaking his hands as if to tell Jeris to slow down. "What the heck is a shadow specter?"

"Where the hell have you been? Us specters are pure souls of darkness, who were simply born of darkness and thrive in it. But we really don't get our own opinion in the matter." Jeris answered, causing Zack to look a bit surprised. Zack had no idea how it may have felt about being told what to do, and what to think. Now that he thought of it, he wondered if Jeris had any idea what he was getting himself into.

"Do you even know what'll happen if I die while your still in me?" Zack asked. Jeris just shrugged.

"I don't know. To be honest, they never actually told me that little detail as to what will happen if I die while in you." Jeris said, rubbing his chin as he thought.

"Look, for both our sakes, I think that we should just cooperate with each other for the time being, and figure out a way to get each other out of here. Deal?" Zack said, raising his hand, even though he knew that Jeris wouldn't be able to. Jeris just looked dumbstruck as he starred. He never really knew someone that would help him in a situation like this, then again he was only in a few bodies while he was created. He grinned a bit as he decided to himself.

"Deal!" Jeris yelled. To Zack's surprise, Jeris' hand actually popped out of the water, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the water. Zack had assumed he was in the lake, but when he looked around, he realized there was darkness all around him. The only light that appeared was the one coming from the top, as he could see the lake. He wasn't even in a lake as far as he was sure. His eyes scanned the area though as he looked around, hearing a maniacal laughter from around, echoing everywhere. Zack also realized that his bracelet was gone.

"Jeris! Jeris!" Zack shouted. All he knew was that he was floating in darkness, and he could breathe. His clothes were the only thing that assured him that he was pulled through the water, seeing how he was drenched.

"I'm over here..." Jeris echoed, causing Zack to look in the direction of the sound. As he looked, he saw Jeris' yellow glowing eyes. Because of the darkness, he could tell that Jeris was in a form of a human now, although it was hard to see since the only light was from the top of the lake. But he could definitely tell that Jeris was coming towards him. He glared at Jeris as he took a stance as he saw his counterpart appear into the light. It looked an awful lot like Zack, except his eyes were flashing yellow, and he was completely purple.

"What is this about Jeris? Tell me now!" Zack yelled. Jeris just chuckled to himself.

"What is it that your gettin so upset over? You wanted to make a deal, so I'm keeping it." Zack looked at Jeris confused over what he just said.

"What do you mean "keeping it"?" Zack asked.

"Poor poor stupid Zack. You still don't get it do you? This body is for the both of us as of now. And here's the deal that we're going to make. We'll race. If you can get to the top of the lake before me, you get to keep your body. But if I get there first, I'll take control of this body, and you'll be the soul trapped forever here in darkness." Jeris said, smirking. Zack glared at him in anger for the stupid idea Jeris was trying to do.

"Jeris, will you cut it out already? I'm being serious and there's no way I'm going to give you my body." Zack yelled, as he began to swim to the surface. Jeris just chuckled as he clicked his fingers. In an instant, the gravity in the area shifted, and Zack fell to his back as he landed. He rubbed his head from the shock he felt from falling to his back, and looked around confused.

"Hey, I control this place as of now, so you should do as I say." Jeris warned, walking up to Zack's side, and kneeling into a running position. Zack grunted as he saw no other option, and decided to accept Jeris' little 'race' game.

"Oh, and I should mention one thing..." Jeris commented, causing Zack to look at him a bit curious. "If you do lose, your soul won't be able to last down here since you aren't part of a darkness balance. And you'll be food for my friends..." Jeris said. As Zack looked around, his eyes widened as he saw glarin red eyes all around the darkness of the place. Zack could hear them breathing, wanting their precious meal.

"Why are they just standing there?" Zack asked.

"Because unlike me, they can't stand actual light. And they'll die if they entered." Jeris answered, pointing to a direction. As Zack looked, he saw a demonic tentacle from a creature try to come into the light. But as it did, Zack grew surprised as he saw that the beast's flesh began to burn, and steam could be seen coming off of it. The beast immediately retreated it's arm back into the darkness. Zack gulped a bit, nervous about being chow for the beast.

"Go!" Jeris shouted, immediately running towards the light. Zack blinked, a bit angry that Jeris got a head start.

"Hey wait a minute!" Zack shouted, running after him. Zack breathed bit by bit as he dashed for the finish line, attempting to get to the light first. As Jeris looked back, he grinned as he saw Zack running up to him at equal speed. With the simple snap of his fingers, a giant pillar appeared right in front of Zack, blocking the way.

"That's cheating!" Zack shouted, running around the pillar.

"In a land of darkness, everything is cheating!" Jeris shouted, snapping his fingers again. Next thing Zack knew, two different black pillars appeared from the side of the walls, about up to Zack's shoulders. Zack grunted to himself as he quickly slid under the pillars, making quick haste back to his feet. As Zack looked, Jeris was probably half way to his body by now, but Zack started to pick up in his speed quickly.

"You don't give up do you?" Jeris asked, with antoher snap of his fingers. Zack looked at the side of the walls and the ground, expecting to see some sort of pillar to come out. But Zack's eyes widened as he heard the creaking of the pillar, and realized where it was coming from. As he looked up, a pillar about half of Zack's size came crashing down. Seeing how he couldn't avoid it in time, Zack turned around, trying to push the keep the pillar from crushing him. But it was no use as the pillar pinned Zack to the ground, pushing into his chest. Zack coughed a bit of blood as the pillar continued pushing into him. Zack tried to get the pillar off of him, but it was to no use. Zack glared back at Jeris who was smirking as he just stood there.

"Hurts, doesn't it?"

"Jeris!" Zack shouted. "Get this thing off of me, now!" Jeris just grinned as he started to walk away.

"Don't worry Zacky boy. The pillar will kill you first before the creatures around here do." Zack grunted as he continued to try to push the enormous pillar off of him, but to no use. Zack sighed as he lowered his head, with a bit of a depressed face. How can I lose? I have to get Brace back to her home, but I can't if Jeris messes everything up for me. Zack thought to himself. There has to be a way to do this. There has to. Zack lost his train of thought as he looked back at his wrist. He continued to notice that the bracelet still wasn't on his wrist. He sighed seeing how everything her worked up to at this point was about to be washed away.

The more he thought about it, the more he grew angry at it. It was his body to begin with, and he couldn't le someone else take control of it. He knew if he was going to do something that he would have to do it now. But what is it remained the question. Zack looked at the palm of his hand again as he looked up. He grew an idea at something, but didn't know if it was going to work.

"It's a gamble...no. It's something to hope for." Zack said to himself as he snapped his fingers. Jeris' eyes widened as the gravity in the area began to shift again. Jeris screamed as he suddenly began to fall from the top of the place, plunging back down. He glared back at Zack, realizing what it was he did.

"Nice try Zacky, but two can play at that game." Jeris yelled, snapping his fingers. His eyes widened though as he realized he couldn't change the gravity in the room anymore. Zack grinned as he snapped his fingers again, and the pillar finally went back into the darkness. But because it wasn't pinning him to the ground anymore , or wall in this case, Zack began to drop into the darkness like Jeris, who grinned at the idea.

"Not that smart, were ya?" Jeris commented. Zack just replied with a smirk as he looked back at Jeris who looked sternly at this. "Why you smiling for? You're about to fall just like me!" Jeris shouted. Zack just chuckled to himself.

"I finally realize it now. I always controlled what I did in this body, and I still do!" With the simple snap of his fingers, a giant pillar ascended from the seemingly bottomless pit, and pushed up against Zack, who kneeled since he was being pushed up at intense speed. Zack gave a sarcastic salute goodbye as he passed Jeris, who seemed to be dumbstruck.

"Heh, not bad Zacky boy." Jeris shouted, as Zack looked into the light that engulfed him.

Everything went blank for awhile, but Zack knew that his conscious was still alive. The question was though that whether or not he actually had lost, and Jeris was controlling his body. Even as Zack opened his eyes, he saw that darkness was all around him. But his head felt kind of funny. It felt like it was slippery, almost wet, and he knew that something was touching his face. After waiting for a few seconds, the strange item, that finally appeared to be a wash rag, was taken off of Zack's face, and he could see day light. Zack squinted his eyes a bit, seeing how it was a while before the last time he saw any light. As his vision cleared though, everything was starting to look normal. And to his surprise, Brace was looking down at him with a worried expression. Zack moaned as bit as he leaned up with his elbow, rubbing his head, which seemed to be hot for some reason.

"Where am I?" Zack asked, looking around. As he did, he saw Matsu leaning against a tree, looking at the two of them, and in the middle of the area there was a burnt out camp fire.

"Back at the camp site. We found you unconscious near a lake. You were running a large fever." Brace answered. Zack looked at her a bit confused.

"A...fever?" Zack copied, still a bit confused. Was it all a dream? Zack thought to himself. I thought I had fallen in the lake but...Zack lost his train of thought as he realized his clothes were wet. "Why are my clothes wet?" Zack asked.

"We don't really know. You were completely drenched for some reason, but you were a few feet away from the lake. Our guess was a huge fish or something splashed near you when you were unconscious." Brace answered, as she began to stand. Zack's eyes widened at this. He was completely on a break of both sides of himself. He couldn't tell if he had just dreamt the whole thing, or if it had really happened. As he looked back though, Matsu had his hand out. Zack smiled a bit as he grabbed it, and Matsu helped pull him up.

"Uhh look about before..." Matsu started, rubbing the back of his head. "I want to apol..." Before he could finish though, Zack interrupted.

"No Matsu. I'm sorry." Zack said, causing Brace and Matsu to look at him a bit curiously. "Hope is a good thing to have, even if you can't really see it. Anything an happen with hope." Zack said, as he started to walk away, planning to head to the next town. Matsu and Brace looked at each other confused, before looking back Zack.

"Where'd you learn all that?" Brace shouted.

"Jeris taught me." Zack yelled back as he continued to walk, with his arms behind his head. Matsu and Brace looked even more confused now as Zack continued walking. Brace just giggled to herself for a moment.

"Hey Zack! Did Jeris also mention your going the wrong way?" Brace shouted. Zack stopped completely as he still had his foot in the air. He felt a sweat drop behind him as he turned around again, walking as he did before.

"I knew that..." Zack replied. Matsu and Brace just chuckled as they began walking in the right direction of town. This world is so strange to me. Zack thought to himself. To be honest, I don't even know if this will work out in the end. I don't even know if I can protect Brace. Zack said to himself as he looked at Brace curiously. He smiled a bit as he shrugged off those feelings. It doesn't matter though. I now have something I didn't have for a long seven years now: hope.

As he was looking through Zack's eyes, Jeris saw how he had learned something from his race with Jeris. Jeris grinned to himself, impressed that Zack managed to reawaken something that laid dormant in him. But, the other shadows knew of what Jeris had done. He hadn't been instructed to do this, and others were even in rage because of it. The unknown entity was standing behind Jeris. Jeris knew he was behind him, but he didn't care, much less bother to look to know he was there.

"You weren't ordered to do that." The strange being said. Jeris just smirked.

"True, but then again you didn't say we couldn't have a will of our own." Jeris replied.

"Yes I did." The strange being replied, annoyed.

"Hmph, must've slipped my mind. Either way, I'm still technically following orders." The strange entity looked strangely at this.

"Oh, and how so?" It asked.

"I can't expect him to die or I might die as well. Even if I don't, you ordered me to make sure this kid gets Brace home with success. so technically, it's a two way street." The entity just chuckled to himself.

"Hmm, good point I suppose. But don't think it means you should be helping him with every little detail. Your orders are to simply make sure Brace gets back home, not make friends with the other world being." The entity replied.

"Watch your mouth. You know the lord won't want someone talking like that about a fellow shadow." The entity scuffed to himself as he turned around.

"Perhaps my choice of words weren't...acceptable. Just make sure you do what you were told, Jeris." The entity replied.

"I will, and in return I expect my reward..." Jeris commented, glaring back a bit at the entity.

"You will get what you want. You will take your place among the rightful kings of the six trigrams." The entity replied, disappearing. Jeris just chuckled to himself as he looked through Zack's eyes again.

"King of the six trigrams huh? I could live with that, just fine..." Jeris said, with a chuckling laughter that echoed through out the darkness of Zack's heart...


	8. Chapter 8

**Episode 8: Em'bracing The Aftermath**

The town was desolate, and destroyed. After the attack from the Shadow knights, they left many buildings destroyed, many people dead, and many people forced to leave. Within these desolate ruins, a girl was running. The girl was probably six years old, only about two and a half feet tall with pink hair. She ran for her life as the people behind her chased her. Clutched in the center of this little girls arm, was a strange, black necklace. For some unknown reason, it was the only thing didn't seem to have been dusted or wrecked from the destruction of the city. Suddenly, the little girl tripped, falling on her stomach. She rubbed her head a bit, trying to focus, when she turned around. Her eyes widened as she saw the three that were chasing her. They appeared to be villagers who had survived the destruction of the city, based on their looks and scrapped clothing. They held tool in their hands as weapons. One had a crop scythe, one had a pitchfork, and one had a shovel. The girl crawled backwards in fright until she bumped into a mound of debris. Terror grew on her face as she saw the three walking closer.

"This is your last chance kid, give us that stone or we'll kill you!" One of the villagers said, stepping closer to the girl. The little girl just shook her head.

"No! It's mine! You can't have dis one!" The little girl yelled. The villager grew an angrier face as he looked at the girl. He raised his shovel up until it was above his head.

"You little brat!" The villager said, swinging his shovel down at full force. The little girl was just frozen as she watched the shovel coming down at her at full force. Then, from the sky, a green wave of energy sliced through one of the attacker's hand, and causing it to cut off completely. Everyone looked in fear as blood oozed from the cut on the villager's hand, while a driblet of blood fell on the girl's face.

"Ahhhh!" The villager said, screaming in pain. Out of nowhere, a boy, who appeared to be a teenager, stepped in front of the three villagers, and the girl. He had a green shirt on with dark green sleeves. His hair was spiky a bit with a blonde color to them. And the eyes of the strange teenager was blue. His glare was focused on the three villagers who were attacking the little girl just now.

"You...You bastard!" The villager shouted, using his other hand to punch the strange teenager. Instantly, the teenager vanished, causing the villager to hit nothing but air. The villagers blinked confusingly until they saw the teen on the mound of rubble, behind the girl. The teen's expression just continued to glare at the three, when his bracelet shined an array of vivid green colors, as well as his whole hand. The teen aimed his hand towards the center to where the three were standing. As he concentrated, the wind suddenly picked up as a strange swirl began to appear. With the ever growing wind, the swirl began to grow to an immense size, as the three began to feel the wind tugging on their clothes. Within a few seconds, the strange swirling twister grew until it was twice the size of the three men. The little girl appeared to be the only one who knew what was happening, as she began to hold on tightly to the mound of rubble behind her. The men screamed as they were being sucked into the tornado, all three of them getting blown out after awhile, into different directions, and then the twister disappearing. The teen suddenly jumped back down as he saw that the men were gone. As he turned around, the little girl was looking at him somewhat scared, and the blood that dripped onto her face slowly ran down her cheek...

............................

The sun was shining brightly as Zack, Matsu, and Brace walked through the woods. After narrowly escaping the Shadow Knights, and a strange encounter with Jeris, everything was back to normal as they continued their adventure of bringing Brace home. The woods seemed to be peaceful and quiet like, unlike the village they had just came from, that was totally obliterated when they saw it again. They weren't surprised though, seeing how the army set fire to the town, almost burning everything down. They don't know if anyone else survived the attack, although they felt somewhat fortunate not to see any dead bodies. Zack stared back into the sun, wondering if it's the same sun that shined on his own planet. Everything here was totally out of whack, and now that he thought of it, he wondered if the animals here are the same as well.

"Hey, how's the mappin' coming along, Matsu?" Zack asked, looking back at Matsu as the three continued to walk. As he did, Matsu just appeared to be twisting and turning, stretching and folding the map in multiple directions, due to the large size.

"Hmm...well as far as I can see..." Matsu started, holding part of the map in his arm as he pointed to a red dot on it. "The next village we're coming too is Jongolis. I think it's just a few minutes from here." Matsu said, trying to fold the map again. Zack looked back as he heard Brace sighing happily.

"Ah, Jongolis. I remember when I went there before." Brace said, starring into the sky.

"Really? What's it like?"

"Well, when I visited the people were really nice, but their food there was awesome!"

"Sounds like a good place to spend the night." Matsu commented. Brace and Zack looked back at him confused.

"Why spend the night? It's not even noon yet." Brace replied. Matsu pointed towards a direction in the sky, which Brace and Zack looked at. In the sky, there appeared to be dark thunder clouds growing. Zack and Brace could see bits of lightning in the clouds flashing.

"Oh dang it." Brace complained. Now Zack was the only one confused about the situation.

"I don't get it? It's just a little storm passing by. Just wait in town for a few hours till the storm passes, then we can leave again...right?" Zack asked, curiously.

"I'm guessing your storms aren't like ours, huh Zack? The storms around our planet can last for a long time, possibly even for days!" Matsu stammered. Zack looked at him in disbelief.

"Days?! Aww man!" Zack complained, irritated.

"Well..." Brace started, touching her lips with her finger, going into thought. Zack and Matsu looked at her curiously, wondering what she had on her mind. "Technically, there is a bridge that connects to a cave. We could take it, but we'd have to find the Bridge Dono first." Zack looked at her confused.

"What's a Bridge Dono?"

"Oh, they're sorta like people who are in charge of lowering and activating bridges. They have a jewel that they're in charge of keeping, and making sure that they use it for their job."

"Huh...a Bridge Dono." Zack statted, sounding a bit interested.

"Up there!" Matsu said, looking to the top of a hill. "Once we cross that, we'll be in Jonholis!"" Matsu said a bit happily.

"Finally! Food, here we come!" Brace said happily, running to the top of the hill. She was thrilled with the fact they could finally get some good tasting food after awhile. All they were able to eat for the time being was anything they could find. The forest was fulll of berries and such, as well as some fish, but that's all they have been eating for the last two days. Her heart raced in joy as she finally reached the top of the hill. But, a struck of horror shot across her face as she dropped to her knees. Zack and Matsu looked a bit worried at this, instantly running for the top of the hill.

"Brace, what's wr..." Zack started, before widening his eyes at the sight of the town below the hill. At the bottom, Zack and Matsu saw the destruction left behind by the dark army. Buildings had crumbled, dust filled the city, and worst yet, there was blood in a few areas. They knew full well that only the Shadow knights would do this.

"The Shadow knights were here too?" Matsu said, unable to believe what was going on.

"What's the point of all this? What are the Shadow Knights trying to accomplish by killing everyone?" Brace asked, unable to believe the horror that was in their sight. Zack clenched his fist tighter, angry at the destruction the Shadow knights caused. He was also wondering how come the Shadow knights end up wherever they're going to go next. That's when he thought back to what Jeris said, about everything in the land of Darkness being connected. Zack's gaze suddenly shifted however, as he saw something moving. Even though it looked small, due to the fact they were way up high on a hill, he saw a little girl walking around all by herself.

"Hey you!" Zack shouted, catching her attention. The little girl just looked at him in terror, as she suddenly began to run away from the area, vanishing into the dust filled city. Brace and Matsu looked at Zack curiously, wondering what he was shouting at.

"What's wrong Zack?" Brace asked, as she stood back up.

"I just saw a little girl down there." Zack answered, pointing into the city. Brace and Matsu looked at the city for a moment, before looking back at Zack.

"Where? I don't see a girl." Matsu commented.

"I'm telling you she was right down..." Zack started, as he began walking down the hill. But he wasn't even able to take his first step before tripping, rolling down the hill at quick speed.

"Zack!" Matsu and Brace shouted worriedly, as they began to carefully run down the hill. Zack just kept grunting each time the ground hit his face. It felt like he was falling down a flight of stairs, and he was starting to grow a large headache. Finally, after what seemed like five minutes of non stop beatings to the head, Zack finally tripped for the last time, landing face first towards the ground, and scrapping against the dirt. Finally, Zack sighed, relieved that he had finally stopped tripping. As he raised his head, his eyes widened as he saw a skull with an open mouth right in his face.

"AHHHHH!" Zack screamed, jumping back a bit. He then looked as he saw piles of bones and bodies. He then turned around as he heard Brace and Matsu finally coming down.

"Zack! Are you ok?" Brace asked.

"I'm fine but..." Zack said, looking back at the dead bodies as he stood. Brace looked in horror as she saw the piles of dead bodies. She suddenly felt like gagging as he started to make strange coughing noises.

"Woah, you going to be ok?" Zack asked, noticing how Brace was suddenly turning green. Brace suddenly dropped to her hands as knees as she started feeling like she was heaving.

"Give her some space." Matsu said, as he started to back up. As they were expecting, Brace suddenly vomited a pile of puke on the floor, also covering her hands in it. She started feeling light headed as her vision was getting blurry. She felt dizzy as her vision made it look like everything was phasing back, separating. As it did, she barfed one more time, unable to hold down what was left in her stomach, then suddenly collapsed on her side, passing out.

"Brace!" Zack shouted, quickly running near her and leaning her up. He couldn't tell what was wrong with her by looking, and then decided to feel her head. Sure enough, she was running a fever, and it seemed to be getting a bit hotter by the second. "She's burning up. And it's getting worse!" Zack said, carefully picking her up.

"We're going to need a doctor." Matsu said. Zack just threw a confused look at him.

"Where are we going to find a doctor? We don't even know if there's any alive!" Zack shouted.

"Well you saw that girl there, right? If she is alive, there has to be more than one survivor around here!" Matsu stated. Zack looked down at Brace, hearing her breathe heavier than before. He knew Matsu had a point, but the problem wasn't whether or not they'd find the doctor. The problem on Zack's mind was whether or not they'd be able to save her in time.

"Fine, then let's go!" Zack replied, as he started running into the city. Zack made sure he looked in ever corner and alley to see if he could find any life. There wasn't anyone around at all, and there was no sign of there ever being life. He looked back as he heard Matsu coughing a bit loudly.

"Hey dude, you alright?" Zack asked. Matsu coughed for a little bit before he finally responded.

"Y-Yeah..." Matsu started, sniffing a bit. "I think I'm catching whatever she...she..." Matsu tried to finish his sentence, but only ended with a loud sneeze in between. Zack was about to ask him something, before he noticed something strange about the sound in the city.

"Do you hear it?" Zack asked, noticing the fact that everything was quiet. Matsu tried to listen, but noticed that there wasn't any noise at all.

"What do you mean? I don't hear anything." Matsu replied, sneezing a bit after.

"Exactly." Zack replied, quickly stopping. He knew that whenever things were quiet, there was always something going on. There would never be a situation Zack had where everything was silent, unless something was waiting for him. Zack's eyes shifted as he suddenly heard something piercing through the air. He jumped in time to dodge the barrage of arrows that were being fired at him. Matsu quickly took note of it, dodging out of the way in time as well to dodge the assault of arrows. Zack and Matsu looked back at the source of the oncoming arrows. By this time the sky darkened as the city grew dark along with it.

"Show yourself!" Zack shouted, looking all around him. As Matsu looked around him too, to both their surprise, a group of people with different weapons from shovels to sledge hammers to practically bows 'n arrows, came out from the dark corners of where they were hiding, surrounding them completely. Zack felt a sweat drop, seeing how wanting people to reveal themselves weren't the best idea in this case. "Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut." Zack said, a bit nervous. He looked strangely though as he noticed how the people had cloths covering their mouths. Zack's gaze caught attention of an arrow as he heard the sound of an arrow whistling through the wind. He quickly and gently set Brace down, and quickly pulled back his sleeves. With one quick and easy blast, Zack incinerated the arrow that was shot at him. He could hear some of the people gasping and awe struck, not knowing they were fighting a bracelet user.

"H-He has a bracelet!" One of the villagers' shouted.

"All arrows focus on the boy!" Another villager shouted. Zack's eyes widened as he saw almost everyone in the front of the circle surrounding him were archers, all aiming and ready to fire at Zack.

"Damn..." Zack cursed to himself. He knew that he wouldn't be able to block all the attacks with his fire, especially since he didn't know how to do any type of skill which involved in setting the surroundings on fire to protect him from the arrows. He also noticed how Matsu was coughing a bit more than he was before, and he would be in no state to fight if his condition worsened. As he looked around, every single archer was just preparing to fire an arrow. Right before a command was given, a voice shouted out.

"Stop!" The voice shouted. As everyone looked at the source of the shouting, they saw an old man with a cane walking past the crowds of people. Zack noticed strangely how the man had cloth covering his mouth too. When the man finally walked all the way towards Zack, considering he was hunched on his back, he was probably a foot and a half shorter than Zack was. Zack blinked a bit nervously and confused as to why the man was looking at him so weird. "Just as I had thought." The man replied.

"Eh...Thought what?" Zack asked. His reply was followed by a wack on the head with the man's cane. "Ow!" Zack yelled, rubbing his head.

"He's perfectly healthy." The man said, causing the other villagers to look surprised at Zack. Zack and the old man looked back as they heard Matsu dropping to one of his knees, coughing as he put his hand over his mouth. What grew Zack's shock was the fact he could see a bit of blood dripping from his hand he coughed on.

"Matsu! You ok?" Zack asked, running over. Matsu moaned a bit as he rubbed his head.

"Yeah...except for the fact my brain feels like a marshmallow now..." Matsu replied, groggily.

"You four, bring the girl and the large man back to the hospital. I need to have a word with the strange one."

"Hey, I'm not strange!" Matsu shouted.

"I was talking about the one with the fire bracelet."

"Hey!" Zack replied, arrogantly. As asked, two of the villagers helped pick up Brace as they carried her off through the crowd of people, while the other two grabbed Matsu's arm, helping him stand as they walked as well.

"The rest of you return to your homes. I need to speak with the strange one." The old man commanded. As told, the villagers returned without hesitation, or another word.

"Ok, before we go anywhere, I'm Zack, not the strange one, got it?" Zack stammered, annoyed by the nick name the elder was giving him. "Second of all, why did you smack me with your cane?"

"Because I needed to make sure you weren't one of the Shadow Knights." The elder yelled back. Zack looked surprised by what he said. The fact that the Shadow knights were behind the strange illnesses that befell his friends was quite a shocker to him. "The Shadow Knights poisoned the air around us, making sure no survivors got out of here alive. Those who did survive are being forced to remain here anyway." Zack looked curious at what he said.

"Why not? If you can use those masks, then why not just leave?" Zack yelled as the elder smacked him with his cane again. "Ow! What did you do that for?"

"For asking stupid questions. Even if we wanted to leave, we couldn't. The poison didn't just pollute the air, it's polluted everything it's touched. If we were to head out just like this, we'd die from lack of resources, before we even reached the next town."

"Well...Isn't there anything that's close around here for a town?" Zack asked. The elder nodded as a reply.

"Well yes their is but..." The elder stopped, rubbing his chin as he went into thought.

"But what?" Zack asked.

"The only way to get there is traveling over the bridge. But the Bridge Dono refuses to give us the jewel to activate it." The old man said, as the two began walking.

"But why? If life's as terrible as people say it is around here, shouldn't the Dono give it to us so we can all travel?" Zack asked. The old man sighed, knowing he knew nothing about the earlier experiences.

"It's not quite that simple." The old man replied, pointing with his cane out towards the city. Zack turned to look at the ruined filled city, full of seemingly thicker amounts of the poisoned air.

"Our masks can't work as well in these parts of the towns. Those who have better resistance to it are able to travel, but everyone who's ventured out into the city hasn't come back." The old man said, as he started to cough loudly, causing Zack to look somewhat concerned.

"Hey, are you alright?" Zack asked. The old man simply coughed for a few seconds before replying.

"I'm fine. Even being this close to the poison is deadly if you aren't resistant enough." Zack crossed his arms as he starred off into space.

"So let me see if I get this straight: You want me to travel into the poison, find this Bridge Dono guy, and then once we leave my friends will be alright?" Zack asked, looking back at the old man. He blinked confusingly though as he saw the old man was gone. After looking around for a few moments, he grew an irritated look as he saw the old man standing all the way on the other side of the street.

"Good luck to you sonny!" The old man said, before running off.

"Hey! You're not going to even help me?!" Zack shouted back, angrily. After a few seconds of shrugging it off he sighed a bit. He knew that even if the old man had helped him he would get to sick to continue on with Zack. Not wanting to wait any longer, and possibly making things worse for Brace and Matsu the longer he waited, he ran off into the thick cloud, searching for probably half an hour before he stopped to catch his breath. He never ran for so long before, and didn't know how long he could even run in this place. If there was one thing he didn't like about this planet it was the fact the stupid gravity had to be the same. He was somewhat wishing he was in a situation like superman where everything was lighter. He shrugged it off though at the fact he was getting a neat bracelet out of this whole thing, but still found it annoying. He came to a sudden stop as he heard something falling to the ground. As he ran to see the cause of it, he grew surprised as he saw a little girl with pink hair, stuck under a pile of rubble.

"Hey, are you ok?" Zack asked as he quickly ran over. The girl looked at him somewhat scarred, even as he got the pile of debris off of her. Zack put his hands under the girl's arms as he helped her to her feet, brushing off a bit of dirt that he saw on her shirt. Zack's eyes widened as he recognized the girl as the same one he saw when he first entered the city.

"Hey, I know you." Zack said, in a bit of a surprised mood. He looked curiously though as the girl was holding some strange blue orb with both of her hands, grasping it tightly. Before he could even ask about it, the little girl suddenly began to run away. "Hey, wait!" Zack yelled, running after her. The little girl looked back at him, still scarred of what he would try to do. As she looked ahead, she came to a sudden stop as her feet skidded across the ground, seeing a large fence blocking off the rest of the way. She looked back with tears in her eyes as she saw Zack suddenly coming closer. Zack suddenly realized that the girl wasn't wearing a mask around her face. "Why aren't you wearing a mask? Don't you know it's poisonous around here?" Zack asked. The little girl just backed into the wall as she slouched down, still holding the orb in between her arms tightly. Zack blinked a bit curious, knowing that the girl was afraid of him.

"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." Zack said, walking towards the girl. The girl just began to panic as she used her feet to push her back more, even though the wall was stopping her from going anywhere. As soon as Zack began to loom over her, he kneeled a bit on one leg as the girl saw him bringing his hand towards her. She buried her face into the orb as tears rolled down her eyes, thinking that he was going to hurt her. But, to her surprise, Zack just stroked her hair gently, looking back at him as he did.

"Why are you crying? Are you lost?" Zack asked. The girl just sniffled a bit, not even replying to what he said. Zack's eyes widened as he heard the sudden whistling of something coming closer. Thinking it was an arrow, he quickly scooped up the girl in his arms as he began to walk up the wall a few feet, then jumping backwards, narrowly dodging the blast that was aimed towards them. As he landed back on his feet, he looked back towards the little girl.

"Are you ok?" He asked. This time the little girl just starred at him for a few seconds before nodding slightly. He smiled a bit as he set her back to his feet, quickly standing up and looking around to see where the blast had come from. "Show yourself!" Zack demanded, shouting around him. At first, nothing happened until he heard someone's feet landing on something. As he turned around, his eyes widened as he saw a teenager who appeared to be about his height, standing on a pole at least ten feet into the air. The teen had light brown hair and a green shirt on, as well as average blue jeans. His eyes were light blue, much like the sky's color. But what really caught his attention was the bracelet he had on his right wrist. It was sort've shaped like a typhoon, but extended from his elbow to the back of his wrist.

"Y-You're an elemental user?" Zack asked, surprised. The teen just smirked.

"It's called elementalist dumbass." He replied. Zack felt a nerve break, getting tired of being called an asshole by anyone, including Jeris. "I gotta admit, that was some impressive dodging back there. I can't recall the last time someone dodged my attack, let alone run up a wall." Zack just grinned.

"When you've lived in the outdoors for seven years, it does things to ya." Zack replied, holding out his arm. The teen looked a bit surprised as he saw a bracelet on Zack's wrist as well.

"Tch, you're an elementalist too it seems." The teen said, jumping down from the pole. As he looked back at Zack, he raised an eyebrow as he noticed he wasn't wearing a mask. "So, you're immune to the poisons as well it seems."

"So are you...and apparently the girl." Zack said, looking back at the girl who was hiding behind his leg. The teen's eyes widened as he saw the little girl standing behind Zack.

"Tin, what did I tell you about going out into the city by yourself?" The teen yelled, growing a confused look on Zack's face.

"And who are you to..." Zack started, before seeing the little girl running over to the teen, picking her up.

"Are you hurt?" The teen asked. The little girl just shook her head before the teen glared back at Zack. "I hope you're ready to die, because I'm not handing you the Bridge Dono!" The teen shouted. Zack blinked a bit surprised.

"You know where the Bridge Dono is? Where is he?" Zack asked. The teen just sighed irritably.

"**She's** right here!" The teen shouted back as the little girl dug her face into the teen's shoulder. It took Zack a few seconds to process what he said before gasping.

"Wait, what?! She's the Bridge Dono?" Zack stammered. He shook his head as he shrugged off the fact he found the Dono, knowing that he had a bigger problem too deal with. "Listen, I need her help. My friends are sick and..."

"No." The teen replied. Zack's worried expression switched to a glare, angered by the fact he wouldn't listen.

"I didn't ask you, I asked her!" Zack shouted back. He blinked somewhat curiously though as he heard sobbing from the little girl. The teen glared at Zack as he gently set the girl down gently to her feet.

"Don't cry Tin. Find some place to hide. It might get rough around here." The teen said happily, kneeling as he stroked her hair. Tin sniffled a bit as she nodded her head.

"Ok, Matt." She said sheepishly, running and hiding behind some debris as she looked back. Zack just looked confused at the whole scenario.

"You two know each other?" Zack asked, confused. Matt just blinked at him somewhat questionabbly.

"Know her? She's my little sister you idiot!" Matt shouted, causing Zack to grow a shocked look. "Don't even bother asking anymore questions. I'm gonna kill you before you even get the chance." Matt yelled, holding out his arm. Zack blinked surprised as he saw the wind itself swirling around his hand, eventually engulfing it like a tornado, with the end of it extending to the tip of his fingers.

"W-What is that?" Zack asked, surprised. Matt just smirked as he instantly vanished. Zack didn't even get a chance to blink as Matt suddenly reappeared in front of him with his fist pulled back.

"It's called Hurricane!" Matt shouted, punching straight into Zack's stomach. Zack's eyes went blank as he felt the air being pushed out of him and shot straight back. He blinked as he managed to shrug it off, planting his feet straight in the ground, skidding it a bit as he used his hands to help maintain balance. He glared back at Matt, knowing reasoning wouldn't work. "Not bad, you're quite surprising to be honest." Matt complemented, causing Zack to smirk.

"Don't flatter yourself. You just think of me as someone to push over and be unprepared as the next guy, don't 'cha?" Zack asked. Matt simply shrugged.

"Either way it comes out, the point remains is that your just another person threatening my sister." Matt replied, causing Zack to looked confused. "And to anyone who would so much lay a hand on her..." Matt started, claping both his hands together. "**Must perish**!" Matt shouted, as both of his hands were beginning to engulf in the wind. All at once, Matt shot a giant blast of wind in the shape of a twister, causing the ground itself to tremble, straight towards Zack. Zack was frozen in shock to move at all. _Who is this guy?_ Zack asked himself, surprised by the incredible power his opponet had. All his thoughts were washed away as he was engulfed into the never ending wind...


End file.
